May be getting some new wheels for racing as well, but waiting for confirmation. I'll post an update as soon as I hear. I'm still dialing in the position, but right now it feels pretty good.
In other news, this past weekend was super busy with work. Lots of events going on with the nice weather coming around. On Friday I was over at Village Cycle Sports Spring Sale. They had TONS of bike on sale...not to mention a great deal of 50% off on on PowerBar gels, bars, and gel blasts. Seemed like we sold through quite a bit of it! I sampled some product and talked to customers as they came through. Their sale was from Friday-Sunday with each day getting nicer and nicer!
On Saturday I went over to Sammy's Bike shop in St. Charles and helped out at their in store event. Sammy just re-did his whole shop and it looks awesome. Reps from Sram, Zipp, Colnago, Cervelo, Sigma, and PowerBar were there. I set up a nice tent with products for athletes to try out. The whole group met at 8am to do a long bike ride. Since I was working, I was up at 4am to load the car and prepare all of the PowerBar goodies. I made a recovery drink in a large 10 gallon cooler, loaded up on recovery bars, gels, gel blasts, and protein bites. Threw all of that in the car along with my bike and was off.
Once everything was set up at Sammys, I decided to jump in the ride. I loaded up my bike pockets with Gels (over 50!) and carried them along. The group split after about 10 miles and then the hammer started to drop. I was thinking that the group would take it easy the whole day, but nope....there were multiple attacks off the front. I didn't realize this at first and when I looked ahead, the front group was way up the road. I took off trying to catch them and really made up some good ground. With good fortune, the group slowed to wait for everyone so I was able to rejoin. I was ready for this the next few times attacks were made...and even made a few on my own :) Each time we stopped, I offered the group some PowerBar gels, which were a huge hit. I ended the ride with only two of the original 50 left, with me not taking any! I was hurting, but would rather have the other individuals use them as I have the benefit of being overwhelmed with gels on a daily basis.
The ride really pushed me which was a good thing...and also bad. Bad because I was planning on running the Shamrock Shuffle 8k the following day. My legs were pretty tired when we finished, so I knew I would be hurting the following day. Overall, we rode for a total of 3 hrs.
Once back at the shop, I sampled the recovery drink and handed out PowerBar water bottles to the riders. Everyone loved the drink as well (I went through 10 gallons!). I myself overindulged in it all while also eating two PowerBar recovery bars. The rest of the evening was a lot of fun talking to athletes and listening to Olympian Shelia Tourmina talk about her journey in sport. I ended up working for over 11 hours that day, so overall it was pretty tiring!
The next morning, I was up early to go downtown for the Shamrock Shuffle. As usual, my family got a late start and we we rushing to get through the crowds. There are 40,000 runners in the race...so definitely a big mess. When rushing through the crowds, my little brother got separated from my dad. Jacqui and I were going to the elite start line, so he was supposed to stay with my dad and run with him. When I looked back, my little bro Alex was tagging along. I panicked because there was not much time. I told Jacqui to go to the start and get ready for the race while I search for my dad. I was never able to find him...so I left Alex with a family friend and took off for the start line. I checked my bag, ran through the crowds, and made it to the line with a few minutes to spare. Jacqui was a mess because of the whole rushed situation. Neither of us warmed up so it was a jump right into the race.
I actually felt good at the start and went out in a 4:50. I was sitting well right around 15th place, but could tell that 4:50 was too much for me with no warm up (and having tired legs from the day before). I kept pushing and started to pass a few runners and moved up into 12th at the 5k mark. Mile two was a 5:01 and Mile 3 was a 5:10. So I was slowing and really starting to hurt. Once a few runners passed me, I sucked it up and went with them. The next mile was a 5:00 and I passed 4 miles in 19:59. I knew I had to run all out in order to break my goal of 25:00....but there is a tough hill right at about 4.7 miles. I ran as hard as I could and sprinted to the line...but watched as it ticked at 25:00. My official time was 25:02...so my last mile was just over 5:00. I was glad to push hard and not keep slowing down after the 3 mile. I know that with being fresh, having a warm up (and not shocking my body with a hard first mile), I would be under 25.
Next up is Du Nationals at the end of April. I am taking time off of work so I should be rested and ready to go. I'm really excited about that race as it is my goal race of the year. I know with a good taper and rest from not working, I will be eager to race and ready to roll. Overall, it was a good weekend which ended on a pretty cool note. After the run, I went over to the White Sox game and was honored to throw out the first pitch. It was a bit wild, but still a neat experience.
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