Just a test blog to test a blogging-disaster...

I just raced yesterday in the state of Washington. This marks the beginning of my summer. After struggling with a bout of fever and some late nights (people dont seem to go to sleep early enough, in my opinion), I started this race for two reasons and two reasons alone:

(a) I wanted to see how I would go, given some poor training weeks leading upto the race. I have been in a mental downer because of a few things but, thats life for ya! Never perfect. I kept my training as consistent as I could because its no good to sleep on your dreams when the going gets tough.

(b) I think its important to excel at something only if you love it. In the past year, Ive seen how unhappy people get when doing difficult races and it never ceases to amaze me that they take it upon themselves to participate when it brings no joy to their lives. I thought, this race would be a great test of my attitude -- do I really love this sport and would I really have a great day despite health/training issues or would I make myself miserable?

I had a superb day. I just loved the race from the word "go!" I was focussed the whole time, very happy to be there and it was a perfect day for racing! The bike was through some hilly routes in the backroads and my creaky old bike made it up every hill with a smile on her face. I love biking and have a long way to go on this but, I am working hard and have no doubt that I will get so much better in the months to come. The run was the icing and was over too soon for my liking. I had a BLAST! I was happy and cheering on other competitors and smiling (something I never do, because I am usually running so hard :))

I had a fantastic day and my fitness is definitely coming along to have come through this well with the attitude of "go out there and see what you can do".

I am really hoping to put on a good show at the World Champs and I needed this race to kickstart my serious training phase.

Off to work and put in the miles.