Done For the Season

I didn't do my last two races :(

Got out to Burlington, Vermont and did my best to race, but my leg - that's right, leg - would have none of it. Maybe driving 20 hours one way ( 3 hours to Chicago, then 17 to Burlington with a trailer full of bikes ) wasn't such a good idea, after all. Of course, neither was the $550 plane ticket and $175 one way bike fee. Driving at least made the trip affordable for those on the bike shop budget. I was feeling overall fine until the run. Somehow even when I'm telling myself "I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok," my legs just refuse to agree. They were actually starting to feel good there for a bit, then the old IT band injury freaked out on me

and I found myself walking. A lot. I didn't even bother to look at my run time after the fact.

So I decided that when I got back I would do my massage and chiro and see if the next two races were even possible. No dice. So I'm done for the season. Just like that.

It's really disappointing. I'd been so looking forward to the races thinking I was in good shape and rested from having had down time from the broken elbow and all. So much for that. To be honest now I'm completely burnt out. I'm so tired of having to come back from injuries. It's been my whole year so far. The IT band was bugging me since February, then I was *thinking* I'd at least get it worked out soon when I broke my elbow. Soooooooo yeah. I'm mentally exhausted from trying to work around bad pain. Not the good pain of training, the bad pain of trying to ignore an injury. Dumb I know. So at this point I'm not running at all.

But I can bike.

So I finally finished my cyclocross bike that I've been building slowly. And I'm doing a race on Sunday. EEeeeeekk!! I'm going to be scrambling all over the place I'm sure! It's going to be a

blast. I'm still needing to practice the whole jump off/pick up/run with/jump back on bike as fast as possible thing. Good thing I'm racing Cat 4. Then maybe it's expected when I trip and fall flat on my face!

So here's my new baby: