A bad week, a great week, one more week.

The week after Rhinelander was a tough one. Work got super busy and the boss and his wife had their second child (which is awesome). However, that means that I have to pick up the slack while he's gone, which makes training a little hard.

At first I was scrambling to keep everything scheduled and covered and wasn't getting on the bike. Then I hit a nice groove around Thursday and it prettymuch came down to this:

-get office stuff done before the store opens
-work a day on the salesfloor
-ride whenever you're not at work.

So last week's training wasn't very hard, but I kept at it. Taking Friday and Saturday off wasn't my first choice, but I've been doing great so far for week 2.

Sunday: Easy ride, one hour at endurance pace to get the legs open and get out that aching feeling.

Monday: Hill sprints on Observatory Drive. I felt great and absolutely destroyed my legs. I tried different sprint tactics, like holding a slower acceleration longer, or making a second jump, and found that I can jump and slow down and jump again and again pretty well. I also tried really hard to carry my speed over the top of the climb, as that is an area of weakness right now.

Tuesday: Practice crit. I rode to the crit, raced, and rode home. I felt awesome, covered a bunch of attacks, pulled in a few people, got 3rd in a pree, was 5th wheel with two laps to go, felt awesome, was right where I wanted to be, then PING! PONG PONG PONG. Broken spoke. I pulled out with a lap and a half left. I was really frustrated, but tried to not let it get to me.

Yeah, I'm still kinda pissed.

Wednesday I went on an endurance ride at Jim's and my legs felt tired. Monday and Tuesday were intense, and it showed in my riding. I couldn't sprint up hills as fast, but I was pinning it on the descents. Then I bent my derailleur and noticed my freehub body wasn't engaging. Time for a new rear der and a new rear wheel.

DANG!

It's been a frustrating week technically, but a great one in terms fo my training. I'm doing the kind of riding I need to do for next weekend's Subaru Cup.