Eileen Swanson's Tales

The other day when our weather was in the 70s, Reid and I decided to take Belle to our favorite lake Del Valle, just a 30 min drive from home,  to do some Stand Up Paddling (SUP)!  It’s a beautiful lake, surrounded by green hills, trees, and home to lots of wildlife.  We love it here.  Belle usually swims with us as we play around and have a great time in the clean water.   But this day we brought our SUP boards and wanted to teach Belle to ride along with us. 

This was Belle's first step on the board and it took a second to learn

It literally took a second for Belle to catch on and figure this out.  AMAZING!  I must say she is the smartest pup around, oh and super cute too )  Reid asked her to jump on the board and hold still.  Just as he said, she listened and stayed on perfectly balanced, exactly where he wanted her to be.  Super cool.  I got on my board behind them and off we went paddling around.  I, of course, had our camera with us so I coulc take tons of pics.  It was a memorable time and one we definitely will never forget.  What an awesome day!! 

Belle and me SUP'ing

After paddling around for over an hour, we decided to head back to shore to let Belle do her favorite sport of all time, diving!  Off the dock….. We seriously had one of the BEST times ever at the lake!! 

Fun Times!

Belle playing after SUP'ing

Cool Dive

trying to break away

I decided to try out road racing again.  I had raced for a year back at the end of 2003 and part of 2004.   To be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of racing bikes back then, but something in me this year said I should give it another shot.  So with the support of Wells Fargo Racing Team, I started out with a 48 mile road race 5 weeks ago.  It was awesome and I had a blast with one other teammate in my race.  We placed 1st and 4th.  YAY, it was a great start for sure. 

Winning our awards, 1st and 4th

A week later I thought I could do a team time trial after not riding my tt bike for over 5 months.  Smart decision right?!  Wow, did I pay for it.   First off my teammate is 3 times faster than me, yup Reid.  Secondly, we got to the race start late and didn’t have time to warm up.  Yikes!  But optimistically I thought we would still be able to pull it off.  Not the case….we went from 0 to 30 from the start and I was holding on for dear life.  Withing 4 miles, I was toast, done, fried!!  My legs were on fire and all I could do was spin to try to flush them out.  Not even 18 mph was an option at this point.  Yup, a bummer, but more importantly a HUGE LESSON learned!  I HAVE to warm up.  I can no longer just jump into a race and hope that my legs will carry me through no matter what, that was the case years ago, but yes I am getting older

Next race up just a week later, Snelling RR.  This race was mixed with crazy weather and road conditions and another super cool experience.  50 miles of racing fun, slight rain, lots of rough roads and flooding!  We had huge flooded areas on the road that we had to ride through.  I’m talking 4 to 6 inches deep and 400 ft long.  Yes many crashes and attacks all occurred in these sections of the race.   It really helped to have good bike handling skills throughout these crazy sections.  Tyler Stewart, a local pro, Tracy Hogan and I had a blast talking strategy and racing together for the first time in a road race.  Tyler attacked tons and got attacked, Tracy covered, I covered, some others covered, it was all so much fun!  Within the last 400 meters of the race, I had a good position on the inside, but as soon as we rounded the last turn, some chick dove right into my spot, nearly taking me out so I slowed and lost momentum.  I need to learn to be more aggressive.  But Ty, Tracy and I still finished in the breakaway pack and top 15. 

Tyler, me, Tracy in the break away pack

4th race in row was MercoRR.  This race is a huge one with the likes of Colubia High Road, Tibco, Peanut Butter and CO 2012, Touchstone, to name a few of the pro teams.  I was nervous but excited to race against these amazing women.  I felt way more at ease when Alison Starnes of Tibco, approached me prior to the start of the race and said “hey do you remember me? we rode together at the best buddies ride.”  Of course I remembered her, she is awesome, so strong, so sweet!  Then Emma Rickards of Tibco gave me a big hug and said good to see you again…. Aww, I was feeling the roadie love.  Seriously though, I love these girls from Tibco, they are super strong, successful, and sweet.  So, the race went something like this…..start, attack, attack, attack, I went for a break with the pro road champ, got caught, nearly fell off, held on, attack, attack, suffer, suffer, suffer, and finished.   72 miles done, average 23 mph.  I was proud of this effort, I held on as long as I could with the best of the best in road racing and made it to the finish!  The current World Champion from Germany won the race and 3rd went to the current crit champ, 15th went to the current road race champ!  NICE!!

Brooke, Emma, and Emma and me....Tibco pro roadies

Ok, lastly a Stage Race this past weekend.  I realized after the fact, that this was a wee bit too much for my body to handle.  Too many races in a row, not enough recovery.  Again, fun to race with Tyler and Tracy.  We had a good time in the crit, Tyler killed the TT.  Tracy did awesome too.  I survived.  Just didn’t feel like myself.  I felt lethargic and achy.  But I did have fun hanging out and racing with friends.  Stage 3 of the stage race was not going to happen.  I woke up the next morning feeling sick again and called it a day.  Reid also was feeling sick, so we decided it would be best to rest, recover and get ready for the next race in 2 weeks.  Smart decision that we were happy with.  Now that is a first for me.  Normally I would push through it and dig a deeper hole for myself.  I am getting smarter these days, ha! 

Tyler and me after our cool down