Saturday yet another nice day out! Blue sky and hot! Had a good sleep and felt much better, but still not sure about the cold and hot thing.... I'm not that old yet!? After picking up race packet at the bike store I did my second attempt on sweating out the bug. This time on my road bike. I stuck to "lake shore drive" as I figured it would follow the lake around at a nice flat grade! But like everything else in Salmon Arm it went up also! I got in a few intervals not planned, but legs really dead still. So went back after just over an hour and worked on my mtn. bike! Bad call, as I figured out the sound in my front wheel was not my break, rather a spoke that kept hitting my break caliper. Since I had the tools I figured I could fix it my self, but a couple of hours later, the wheel was wobbly all around... so I took the wheel to a bike shop here, but I should have known better when the guy didn't have the tools to do it! I lent him my tools and when I came back later he had the wheel done pretty good, but he took the tire off (non tubeless tire with tubeless rim) and he couldn't get air back in! And to make the story short... After explaining the Stans, notube with tube tire etc. I ended up getting it done my self. The guy felt really bad, but the rule is you don't try to seal a stans tube tire the night before an event! but it worked out in the end this time. But to make sure it was sealed I figured I had to take it for a test ride, so third attempt! I went back to the race course in the evening and rode the loop, this time the hill didn't feel as bad at all, and the downhill was just heaven! So now I could get a little bit exited about Sundays race! Had a ice bath, but made sure to keep core and head warm and ate some BP pasta.
Today I woke up really early, so had some breakfast and got organised for the 6 hr Salty Dog here in Salmon Arm. I believe they said it was about 400 racers, about 200 on the course at all times. The start was a little bit late so my attempt to warm up didn't really work as well, as by the time the start went my little warm up was ages ago! I've never been that strong in the start and it didn't feel much different today, hoped my warm up would get me going better. As I'm still in training mode I my goal was to do my own thing, but the start always gets me, I get carried away and try to stick with people, this time Trish and another girl was ahead. On the first long climb I had no change on Trish, my legs yelling at me to slow down, and it was only a few mins into the race!! though pretty normal for me.. so I shut my mind off and let them yell. Stuck with them until the next climb and then tried to pull away and after this I was on my own. I started focusing on eating and drinking as it was hot out (26C). And think I did pretty well, went through 4 bottles which is quiet a bit for me in 6hrs. Food didn't sit to well, but did my best. 
After the first lap things got better, the last three was just a killer, granny gear all the way up! The descents were big smiles every time!!:) In the end I got 8 laps (80 or so km), in just a couple of min passed 6 hrs which was good enough for a wooden gold medal and an apple pie! Which a family with two kids behind me really wanted bad, so since I couldn't eat this big pie I made two little guys very happy!(sorry for upside down pict)
Fun event, fun course and overall a great day! Even got my laundry done tonight! so now I can get up and plan the rest of the week in the morning...
In the mean time I get updates from back in McMurray, it looks like my front yard is looking very nice (sorry lost that picture), and the back yard will be looking nice sometime later this summer!! Thanks Meredith and Cody! I'll be back soon to help out! Next race, Calgary next weekend maybe?
Happy Riding!
kate
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