A Wild and Crazy Week!

Last week I had what I would call the ultimate bike/tri-nerd week...everything was all bikes (and sunglasses), all the time.  I attended both Interbike and the two-day Outdoor Demo preceding the major bike convention.  For those of you who are not ultimate bike/tri-nerds...Interbike is a very large bike industry convention--

Some Expo fun with the Rudy Girls!!

everyone comes to show off their new stuff for 2014 to all of the Retail Buyers in hopes of getting their gear in some new stores for the upcoming year.  I also learned that Interbike is one very large party--it takes place in Las Vegas, which I now find to be very fitting :)

I had the privilege of spending the week working for Rudy Project with a really fun group of people! Thank you all for a great time, and a wonderful experience!!

After a week of walking, talking, laughing, stickering, selling, and overall just being social I was EXHAUSTED, but I couldn't rest yet...I returned home late Friday night and had the day to get set to race in my hometown at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Tempe!

Me, Moka, Hannah and Reba across the front!

It is always a great thing to have a race in your hometown--eat at home, sleep in your own bed, have all of your family and friends there.  I was at even more of an advantage because I live about 2 miles from where the start line was!  I have been excited for this race for months! I LOVE racing at home :)  So when I woke up Saturday with a gnarly cough, I told myself, "I'll be fine, I just need lots of sleep tonight!". So I went on with this mindset until I crossed the finish line the next day.  I was not going to let anything get between myself and racing at home!  When I finally came to terms with being sick, the verdict was that I had bronchitis so a Z-pack and some serious sleep were in order!

Rockin' my Rudy and definitely in a world of hurt!

I won't bore you all with the gory details of my race (because I assure you it wasn't my best!), but I will mention a few highlights: I completely forgot to take off my speedsuit...so I raced in two suits the whole race :). I managed to have relatively fast transitions despite being a little confused and out of it the whole race, but this was probably mostly attributed to leaving the speed suit on ;)  Also, I finally got to try a new kind of bike rack in transition--it was the kind you set your wheel in rather than rack your saddle on, very cool!  Did I have the best race of my life? No, definitely not :) Do I regret racing? No, definitely not :) I'm so happy I had the opportunity to prove to myself that I can race under any conditions.  While I did not have the most spectacular race of the season, I still went out there and had a good time!  

Still in my Speed Suit :) oops!

I'm looking forward to the end of October where I'll be competing in my final race of the season...I can't believe my first pro season is almost over--it went by so fast!!

Until next time :)

@nicoletruxes