Just keep spinning: May 2014

I do this sport for me. Not for my parents, coach or friends, for me. Cycling has brought me up from my deepest, lowest points in my life and made me into who I am today. It gave me back my confidence and hope that I never thought would come back to me. This year has definitely had its ups and downs, considering my multiple injuries I just haven't had the best of luck. I've been working through the pain, its not as easy but I'm getting the job done. I know I have a ton of support behind me and I couldn't be any more grateful. Without my friends and family I wouldn't have gotten through the beginning of this roller coaster year. One thing that I really depend on is my faith, I know I'm not mentally strong enough to make it in this sport yet, but I do have more than enough faith in myself. Sometimes I have to take a step back and remember the big picture, I get caught up in the moment at times. Like any teenage girl I have a big head, and I apologize for the way I act when things don't go my way. I constantly have to remember that it doesn't matter what others think of me, or the way I race, what matters is that overtime my results pay off and there slowly starting too. With school coming to an end and my big "A" races quickly sneaking up upon me, I'm starting to stress more! Luckily ill have a week between my goal race and my finals to wind back down. I can't wait to step on the podium again!!

So this season has definitely started off rough as some may say, between sickness, and injuries I just can't get a break! I recently had a wreck and messed up my elbow pretty bad, I've been in a splint and icing my elbow whenever I can. April was actually a pretty good month other than my little spill, lots of good milage and racing with some good company!! I had one of my biggest races, Joe Martin Stage Race. It was a two day stage race with three races, time trail and road race on Saturday and criterium on Sunday. The time trail is a pretty challenging course, 2.5 miles with a 6.8% grade, after the time trail I was sitting 21st out of 34... I wasn't to happy with my time but I still had two more races to move up. A short 3 hours after my TT I was off in my 40 mile road race, as most of you know Joe Martin is known for its hills, luckily I only had one lap. After the first hill you could tell who the climbers were, surprisingly that day I was a climber. The field totally blew up, and I was in the lead group for a while. I ended up getting dropped after an attack and got swept up into the chase group. I won the sprint of my group putting me in 8th place for the road race and 13th in GC, jumping up 8 places! I was 3 seconds out of the top 10, I had to make that up in my 20 minute criterium that had a pretty hurtful hill in it. My race began at 7:30am, you could tell everyone was a little sore after yesterdays grueling road race. The field split pretty quickly, I was in the lead group with about 13 riders. It was probably one of the most painful races I have done so far but I kept in the lead group and ended up 8th in the crit also. After starting in 21st I jumped up to 10th overall in GC which was my goal! Thankfully I had my amazing boyfriend at the race with me to keep me from losing my mind, I wouldn't have gotten though the weekend without him! I was super happy with the way I raced, there was an amazing field with some tough competition out there which was good!! Joe Martin Stage Race was definitely a turning point in my season, I couldn't be any happier with my results considering I was racing on a bum elbow, but there were no excuses in this race!! I'm super excited for these next few months, all my big races that I have been training for are coming up sooner than I had thought!! I'm ready to step on the podium here real soon!