The Greenbriar Challenge

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=164486&format=html

Oooooooo, yay, that's me in this picture in the Herald. Not that the reporters know or care, so I thought I'd point it out. They are looking at Katie Compton in black, to the left (who won the race), but I am the one front and center. So I pretty much have to create my own attention. Look at me!

Well, my bike was finally perfect for the first time in a mtb race this year. Bega from City Bikes performed an emergency operation on the front suspension I blew out at Sea Otter and had the bike perfect for me just in the nick of time on Friday night. Unfortunately, my legs were not in nearly as good of condition as my bike. After a great start and riding up with the lead group for the first couple miles, my legs and body went on strike, and the rest of the race consisted of people passing me and not having any strength to chase it down. It was a really fun, but really technical course, with logs or rock gardens to negotiate pretty much all along. It beat me up in a new way. The last descent was incredibly fun - it was a rocky mud bath that felt great to splash through at high speeds on a warm day. I finished 11th, which I was happy about given my lack of strength that day, but disappointed that I didn't come into the race fresher. Last weekend my road team, HPC, had a team training camp in West Virginia that consisted of 10 + hours of riding up, down, and all around the mountains there. Apparently I didn't give my body ample recovery the week after, and subpar racing is the result. I still haven't quite figured out how to train just right. Learning.

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