How about a little game of highlight/lowlight?
Highlight: A HUGE women field this weekend. We had on average 27 women signed up for each event - a record number! And the depth of the fields were amazing. Only a few people were missing from the sprint field outside of Nationals - so this sprint tournament was a who's who of USA National caliber women track racers.
Highlight: Not just one, not two - but several of the existing track records were broken this year. If you break a record then the promoters pay $200 - and I'm pretty sure between the men's and women's field at least 5 records were broken. A new generation of track racers is demonstrating their phenomenal ability - and out of this crop I'm sure you'll see some world class contenders!
Highlight: Catching up with out of town friends. There's a lot of down time between sessions - but not enough to leave the velodrome. So what do you do? Tell stories and laugh with friends! We had a gaggle of girls hanging out - Cari, Liz, Tela, Kendi, Shelby, Heather, Beth, Val, Ros, Lindsay, Amara, Hanan and myself - talk about some X chromosomes! We had a blast.
Highlight: Watching Tela ride her ass off. Wow. She rode 100% to her ability this weekend and it was fantastic watching her kick so much bootie! 2nd in the sprint tournament, 4th (I think?) in the 500m, and 4th in the Keirin - placing her 5th in the overall omnium!
Highlight: Having good, hard positive racing. It's so much fun when the ladies come out to race their bikes and throw it down.
Okay, just a brief mention of the lowlight.....
I battle asthma. I've had it since I was a little girl and growing up in the Willamette valley had me in the doctor's office more times than my mom could count to get shots as a kid. That explains my phobia of needles - and also explains my breathing problems this weekend. I have a serious allergy to grass pollens and had too big of a dose of them this weekend. In the points race, I couldn't get my legs to kick over - and didn't figure out until today that I had the lack of oxygen to my lungs was what held me back from getting blood to my legs. You'd think I'd be keyed into it - but it hasn't been a problem up in Seattle. But down south in Portland? Oh boy. I had a serious case. Last night I was wheezing so bad that I had trouble sleeping. Hack, hack, hack.
When you can't perform to your ability it can trample your confidence. And motivation. But I've found the best thing you can do when things aren't going your way - throw yourself at it. What have you got to lose? If anything it's a great learning opportunity. As frustrating as it can be that your body is fighting your mind to push it beyond its limits - it's also good to practice letting things go. I smile at myself when I think this - and am thankful for the opportunity to learn.
You biznatches are in trouble this next weekend!
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