Monday, March 22, 2010

My MOJO

Team Training Camp

In all we had 17 members of our team join in on a weekend of learning and bonding as a team. What began on Friday at 6pm and ended on Sunday at 4:30pm… and I loved every minute of it!

Friday – We enjoyed a 1½ ride with some double pace line rotation practice. This freaked me out a bit but as the weekend continued we became more efficient as a team and held our pack close together as we made the rotations.

Saturday – Before our long ride we had a skills clinic to address bumping, leaning, cornering techniques, and Time Trail Starts. To my surprise I loved all of this…even the bumping and leaning drills. Our Coaches and Mentors were amazing! As we began our long ride of the day we were riding in a tight double pace line. When my bar tapped the rider next to me I did not freak out as I may have in the past. Nothing happened and we held our lines with ease. As the ride continued we had sprint zones and additional drills. It was on this ride that I feel as if I found my MOJO once again. As we entered a 4 mile sprint zone I had to dig so deep and block any negative thoughts. My legs were screaming to ease up but even at that moment I found that if only I could hold on and rejoin the pack I could get the slightest recovery. Coaches and Mentor’s yelled encouragement and with this I MADE IT! The reward of knowing that I blocked the evil mental demons were a huge victory for me.

Sunday – With some questionable outdoor weather I took part in an indoor 10k Team Time Trial on the Computrainer against 7 other teammates. With some tired legs we all began our warm-up and then the countdown 3-2-1… It was a sufferfest. There were times that I had thoughts of easing up but this is where the competiveness kicks in and you just put it all out on the line. I placed 5th out of 8th and was very pleased! To finish up the day we had series of lectures to address cycling related sports injuries, a very informative discuss on proper nutrition and recovery, and training in general.

I feel as if I gained so much from this weekend. I have an amazing team of riders with such a strong passion to promote healthy fitness among the cycling community. Our coaches put a ton of time and effort into making this such a successful weekend. IT WAS PRICELESS!! (pictures to follow)

This week I will focus on recovery and tapering for the Half Marathon with my oldest son at his Marine Base. It is yet to be determined if he can run. Having just had a wisdom tooth cut out it is questionable that he has recovered to do the event. We will see. I am fine either way and really look forward to spending time with our son and his wife. Good Times.

Robin

11 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Sounds like a great weekend, I am going to tell my team about this, we need team building

Marlene said...

Sounds like quite the weekend! nothing like being IMMERSED in all things cycling to find that mojo.

I hope your son is okay to run!

ShirleyPerly said...

Some great skills learned at that camp! I still get nervous riding side by side with someone real close and do not like getting bumped/nudged. And I still can't corner as well as I used to since my bike crash a couple yrs back. Gah!!

Good luck at the race and hope your son is able to run too!

teacherwoman said...

You had a great weekend, it looks like! Nice job girl!

Enjoy your recovery week and the weekend to come! :)

Runner Mom said...

Mercy....you bumped another rider and didn't jerk and veer into another one and cause a huge pile-up like I would have???? I am impressed!
Hugs!
susan

Wes said...

Wha? Wisdom tooth? Likely story... ;-)

Judi said...

dang, you DO have an amazing team.

Anonymous said...

The weekend sounds amazing. Glad you enjoyed it. What a great team you are on.

Hope your son's mouth feels better. Bet he planned to have his teeth pulled this week so you wouldn't smoke him in the half.

Dave said...

You live in the south..."If you ain't rubbing you ain't racing"...at least that's what I hear my NASCAR buddies say...I don't dig NASCAR...but at least that's what I hear. ;-)

Grey Beard said...

Well planned. So much of being able to ride in tight formations is trusting that the person next to you isn't going to freak out and take you both down.

Needed my brain tonight, so bailed on the TT, but did get in 30 with friends. Bridged up and ran down a guy on a Cervelo TT bike on his way to the TT event. He took us up to 30mph, couldn't shake me, and ended up inviting me to join him.

Thought of you and your competitiveness while running his ass down. :D You go girl!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Sounds like you're learning a ton of stuff!!! You've come such a long way, you should most definitely be proud!!