taper madness begins!

So its 2 weeks out till New Orleans, which means that its time to start drawing down the volume and increasing the intensity for a week before dropping everything off of a cliff for the 2nd week...not really, just going much shorter and harder with lots of rest for the 2nd week.

I finished off my large biking volume last week by putting up 131 miles on the bike, 99 of which were done on Friday and Saturday. After the hilly 42 miler on Friday, I did my 57 mile time trial route on Saturday, and I really wanted off of that bike by the end of it. My body was wrecked! And yet I still managed to do the ride 5 mins faster than last week.

Of course, I almost became road kill on that ride.

I was flying down a hill @ 30+ mph in the aero position (which is not as stable) and I was crossing over an overpass. Well, overpass = cross wind. Me and my bike = a sailboat.

In a split second it felt like my bike was lifted off of the ground, moved sideways, and dropped back down to earth. That really didn't happen, but its what it felt like as my bike suddenly jerked to the right. I thought I was going to eat it! My body was shaking from the adrenaline rush.

Never again do I want to experience that!!!! That would have been a season ender...

Anyways......

Even though New Orleans is 2 weeks out, its also time to start logistics planning. This will be my first race that I won't be driving to, so that means bike shipping. Tribiketransport.com pulled out of the race at the last minute, leaving me with fedEx ground shipping. No big deal, I just have to pack the bike up. Fortunately I already have my super duty Trico bike case from my two summers of biking in southern France.

Yes, in case you were wondering or severely worried, you can in fact fit 5 bottles of wine in there along with the bike. ;)

Bike goes into the shop today for a quick gears tuneup, then its shipped either tomorrow or Wednesday down to the hotel. As soon as that bike is shipped, its gonna get REAL!!!