Week #12: Barry-Roubaix

Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it

I'd like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it

After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own

Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone

Week #12 saw the race that almost didn't happen. With rumors of snow, ice, peanut butter mud, and general treacherousness in Michigan, my Speedway Wheelmen teammates vacillated all week about whether we should even go to Barry-Roubaix. Since I had really only signed up for it to complete the "Tour of Pain" quartet, I wasn't really attached to going if no one else was. In the end, though, Sarah seemed determined to go, and couldn't really think of a good excuse not to.

So we made the trip without Janelle, who seems to have officially and permanently broken up with Michigan racing, and is now out of the running for the "Tour of Pain" GC. We had a really good time driving and hanging out at the hotel, as you can see from our "openers" workout below.

The race itself was pretty meh. The weather was supposed to be 40 and sunny, but the start saw 20-something and overcast, and I don't think it got above 35. So starting with full winter gear, including lobster gloves, kind of killed whatever competitive spirit I had. The race started and I just rode. I couldn't get a good wheel, and I didn't really try that hard to keep one. The course had some ice on it, but overall wasn't too bad. I did manage to slide out once and bruise my hip. In the end, I made the time cutoff that I've been worried about for months, although they moved back 30 minutes for conditions. However, I missed a turn during the last 20 miles and ended up wasting 20-30 minutes riding off course. 

The above lyrics entered by head during the time I was trying to find my way back and get to the finish line. Let's just say it was bit of a letdown after the awesomeness that was the Death March. In the end, though, I persevered, because that is what I do. Now that I've already had a high and low in this infant season, I'm hoping to move on and find what the "new normal" is for 2013 Lindsay. I'm a different person than I was in my previous endurance racing life; I'm just not sure what that is yet. So maybe my "old self" is the exact opposite of what I'm trying find. I wouldn't mind my two-weeks-ago self, though.

This is what I made immediately after finishing.