I hope its just the weather

I really hope it is just the weather making me feel icky and not that i'm getting sick. The Santa Anna's have taken a number on my ability to breathe or at least that is what it felt like tonight at the track. The first few laps my throat was so DRY and we weren't doing anything that strenuous. That turned into a desire to cough a lot...which then turned into an under lying feeling of ick...which meant I really just wanted to puke a lot. No...it wasn't from any REALLY hard efforts, it was just the hacking made me want to hurl. Nice...huh. And because I felt puky...my efforts were pretty limited.

The other 'option' is that i'm getting sick...and I don't like that option...so LET's blame the Santa Anna's. That makes me feel better. I had a pretty hard time breathing tonight. I even checked the air quality since there have been some fires here the past two days and it said that the air is OK...so I can't even blame that.

So on to the track...we had our first casualty on the track. No...not me...another rider rather unfortunately just took a turn too hard. My group was waiting off the track and I l look up and see them sliding down the bank. YIKES! This was in the higher grouped class...all in all the rider was fine and got back at it.

We played some games of cat and mouse...can we say...i suck at that. OH WAIT I discovered tonight that I pretty much couldn't hang on anything. Basically in cat and mouse you have two people who are the mouse/mice who get a head start and will then work together to try to stay away from everyone else. All the while the rest of the group goes really slow waiting until they are given the whistle to start. Once the whistle blows the 'cat' (everyone else) has to try to catch the mouse/mice. Basically everyone in the 'cat' has to work together to try to catch the 'mice'. You have to try to catch the mice in 3 laps or less. Basically with the cat it turns into:How fast can YOU make a pace line?

Each time I was in the group as the 'cat' the whistle would blow and it just seemed that by the time it was time for me to grab the wheel of the person in front of me, they suddenly were going 10x faster than they were a second before and I was off and there was no recovery from that. That happened 2x...and then I was asked to be one of the mice. (I soooo didn't want to be a mouse)

Um...yea....keep in mind, i don't know what i'm doing 99% of the time. They made it sound like I should let the other mouse pull since he was a stronger rider, but by the second lap I really should have come round and pulled us for a bit...but me and the other rider were having trouble communicating. I couldn't understand him. When I am going round and round the track the wind is in my ears hence...I couldn't understand anything he was saying. I'm saying: GOOOO and all i hear is 'mumble, mumble'. He was trying to tell me to pull to the front. The other thing was I didn't understand about the situation was if me and him were doing pace line etiquette (where the person in front pulls off and then tucks in behind the other person)...or if I was supposed to go around him. I didn't want to pull around and have him pull up...and crash...so i just hung on the back and yelled...oops. UNFORTUNATELY we still got caught...but not til lap 2.5...so not too bad.

Its week three and the camaraderie is starting to build amongst everyone taking the two classes which is fun. People are starting to be more comfortable with each other and you start to hear: Hey good job closing that gap. Or: Awesome job on that final sprint. I love watching the dynamics of a new group of people start to come together and be friendly with one another. It takes everyone some time to warm up in a new group where no one really knows too many other people.

I've so far found that most people are really encouraging. I was given a really nice compliment just with reference to closing a big gap. Compliments really are encouraging, especially when it can be so easy to get down on myself about being slower and having to drop off a lot. It is nice because everyone is pretty new and no one has a really big ego about being on the track. We all know we are learning and I have found people really encouraging and those that are more experienced are also willing to give some tips. Its turning into a good group.