Sunday, January 17, 2010

Life's Little Ironies

I'm sure everyone feels this way at some point during their career. Just two weeks into the new season and training has been going great, then out for a long run on the trails today and oops, over goes the ankle. I guess that teaches me to go trail running in the rain. I probably used up all my good luck riding safely rubber side down for four hours in the rain with the roadies yesterday on the BBL ride in Birmingham. (Great Saturday morning ride if you are ever in the area during the winter months) I have always had loose ankle joints and been prone to ankle and achilles injuries but it seems the ankles have been extra instable recently. I now have a swollen right foot with a knob about the size of an egg growing on the outside of my ankle bone. Hopefully with lots of ice and a couple days of rest it will be back to good soon. In other news I said goodbye to Atlanta and the Rudder's and moved over to Birmingham, Alabama. Big thanks to Gary Harris who hooked me up with some sweet passes to the Concorse Athletic Club where I got in some nice outdoor swimming sessions, and of course Mark, Vicki, Alex and Sarah for opening up their home to me. I got to do some great riding despite the cold weather. I even got over to check out the trails at Fort Yargo where Xterra puts on a points race, lots of fun. Now it's time to play on the trails at Oak Mountain. There is still some question as to whether the Regional Cup race will come back to Pelham this year. Hopefully everything will work out as it is such a fun set of trails and an awesome venue for Xterra.

Sarah and Alex Rudder

I made the short drive over, past Talladega speedway (which I strangely always thought was in Florida) on Thursday, my rest day. Friday was beautiful and I got in a great tempo run in shorts and a t-shirt. One of the local high schools in Hoover has put in a really nice 5k limestone running trail that is great for some fast off road running without having to worry about rocks and roots. Saturday morning the weather turned ugly with cold weather and rain moving in. With a four hour long ride on the schedule I decided I needed some company to help me with my motivation so I headed out on the local group ride. We started out dry at 9am with 60+ riders. The rain started right about the first attack zone at 10:15 and rained pretty much the rest of the way. I was pretty proud to not drop out or get shelled and rolled back in with the lead pack that ended up being about 12 riders. Definitely earned some respect from the boys being the only chick to hang. Then today... well lets just forget about today, time to go ice again.

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