time to crack

24 hours of 9 mile (a.k.a. 24 hour Nationals) is coming..we're leaving in less than a week to head to Michigan to drop the dogs off with my parents..taking the ferry over from MI to WI, and heading over to 9 mile. The ferry is $$$$ but should cut out a total of 18 hours of drive time for us over the entire trip...that's worth it!

Yesterday was supposed to be my last really hard training ride..and Eddie (my coach) told me he wanted me to crack like he did last weekend. I rode alone, and unfortunately it was super wet and muddy. After my first lap, I looked like I had just completed a 24 hour race in the rain and mud! I attacked every hill like I should have..and pushed my pace as much as I could without slipping on the wet roots and pinestraw. I kept my avg HR pretty high but unfortunately..never cracked. I felt just as good in my 3rd hour (or better) than I did in my 1st hour. I thought I had done something wrong and sort of felt bad, but Eddie told me not to be upset about feeling better than expected. I think this is probably because last week was kind of easy in that I was 8 hours short of my training hours!! Since I am still feeling good, I'll have another long hard ride this weekend, and then it's all about rest all the time until the race.

Richard and Mike Livingston are coming up to do support for this one, which is awesome because I will actually have my own support!!