Shock to the system

Continued the Teva Mtn Games tradition today - 5 years in a row now - and shocked myself back into the race scene. It's been a rough spring, as far as getting any consistent training time in. My last clinical rotation is very busy, and with 14-hour days, 4 days a week, and it's lack of sleep that is limiting me the most.

Throwing all those truthful "excuses" out the window today, I lined up with the Expert Women's class and finished a surprising 5th place! In a nutshell, my climbing legs have yet to emerge from hibernation, yet after riding only my 575 thus far this year, my descending skills may have ticked up a notch. The course was the best yet, with a couple miles of newly-cut twisty trails on the descent, though the Vail course never fails to challenge every ounce of willpower when it comes to grinding uphill.
Post-race came the shock to the system, and the worst headache I've had in a long time. No doubt about it, my first extreme effort of the year brought on altitude sickness. Just like the fancy little graph denotes, going from 84% O2 to 66% O2, and with a redline effort explains it plain and clear. Now, to sleep...