An excuse to be lazy...

Fox River Grove: Womens 1/2/3 30 mins
The last race I did in June, the crazy high ski hill climb to fast downhills through a subdivision to the start/finish line and back up the hill. A small field of 5 riders started, including my teammate JP who is crazy enough to say "I loved it!" when asked about the hill. From the start, JP was in the front and attempted to create a new race (ie, she almost went the wrong way), I did this course last year and yelled out "where are you going?!" and turned up the hill. It was exciting and awesome, i was leading up the hill...for like 2 seconds when JP went speeding past me. The plan was to get her ahead and i would block the large peleton behind. For the first lap, it was the four of us. 2nd lap, HS got away and we lost NW, so that left me and CS. As the laps kept coming, we were neck and neck...and then my foot came out of the pedal halfway up the climb (maybe it wasn't a good idea to change the cleats on the way to the race). I hear her teammates "DROP HER DROP HER!!!" just adding salt to the wound. She makes it up the hill b4 I hit the mini-flat. Down the hill, I catch her wheel. She expertly pulls of and makes me pull. Crap. When we hit the 2nd to last lap, i'm tired, but 2 to go! We go up together and it happens again, foot is out. I get it back in quicker, but this effort of starting from a stop on such a hill gets me. I see CS and i'm trying to catch, i get close on the last lap, but no cigar. I take 4th.

I thought to myself...fox river grove was a tough race, but it was short. the hill didn't hurt as much as last year and i have a free monday. i would like to start racing the track again, but i hadn't been back since last year and i decided it was the perfect chance to get there for some Monday Night Training. It was a sunny warm day, why not? I prepare the track bike, check the tires, lube the chain...ponder a 50 or a 48. I go with the 48, afterall its been awhile, i don't want to tire my legs out b/c tuesday is bartlett. plus we have breaks between sets, i can always swap out to the 50 if i start to spin. it was nice to be back with the track crowd and i took a few warmup laps on my own. after a pre-training day safety talk, we all head into the 30lap warmup. once we're organized and the paceline starts, so does the accordianing. accelerate, slow, accelerate, slow. it was getting annoying and i look ahead to see who is the trouble maker. i think to myself "i really don't want to be in this position" but can't really do much b/c of the paceline but i continue to watch for openings. a gap opens up again, and there's a quick acceleration and all of a sudden BAM i slam into the wheel in front of me and i'm down. i scrunched up, trying to protect myself b/c there were riders behind me. a few swerved around but a few also hit me (and i've got the tire tracks to prove it). once it was clear, people ran over to see if i was alright. i sat on my knees and tried to catch my breath. My shoulder hurt and so did my knee. I stood up and asked "where's my bike!" and i spotted it yards away from where i was. i started toward it, but the first aid guy told me to sit down and he got it. a couple of ice packs and bandages later, i'm filling out an incident report. i think its ok, just trackrash, swelling and bruises. figured i'd be sore tomorrow.

The following day was bartlett. i thgt it'd be a good chance to see how much i hurt and worse case, i'd just hang on that back. JP's mom helped bandage my knee and i left looking like i was wearing fishnets. turns out though that i couldn't climb and i couldn't accelerate. my chain skipped on me once and jerked me forward and boy did that hurt. i know i got a good workout in, climbing those hills in the saddle. i got dropped really early, but managed to catch up when JP's mom asked me to give her the cell phone. that was one of the hardest things i'd ever done. i rode the rest by myself b/c i just couldn't do anything really. called my doctor that night, and a couple of x-rays and MRIs later, i found out i had dislocated my shoulder as well as having a 1st degree AC joint separation. I've got some lovely colors on my knee, but the swelling went down really quick. With the injuries, i'm off the bike for 3 weeks. I had to skip the proctor cycling classic, unfortunately, but had a lot of fun just hanging out. physical therapy is to start soon and :::fingers crossed::: i should be healed and ready for superweek!