Alisha was back in action this weekend for the first time since her injury in Philly, although in a different type of road race than usual – her feet were pounding the concrete instead of the pedals. She competed in, and convincingly won, the Bele Chere 5k road race in Asheville, NC on Saturday morning. Overnight rain and drizzly race conditions kept some runners at home, but almost 1000 runners showed up, including over 430 women. Having not done any road racing in several years and no speed or turnover work, Alisha was still able to finish the hilly 5km course in 18:00, 19 seconds ahead of the 2nd place female and in front of all but 15 of the men. The Bele Chere race also doubled as the official North Carolina 5k road race championships. In addition to Alisha’s NC Championship in the cycling criterium in 2005, she is now the NC 5km Road Race Champion.

Alisha jumps back into action in August and September with several triathlons on her schedule, including the Duke ½ Ironman Tri. She will be back on the bike with Webcor-Platinum in September in Bermuda to close out the 2006 cycling season.

• Asheville’s Citizen-Times race report
• Alisha’s thought’s on her blog
• Full Results via the Asheville Track Club

Whew, it’s been hot around here in Holly Springs the past couple weeks. On average our highs have been in the 90’s and with the heat index we’ve been feeling well into the 100’s. So I have been drinking gallons of water… I feel like I drink non-stop, constantly, and I can never quench my thirst. Now I know for sure that I would never survive if I got lost in the desert!

I went up to Asheville for the Belle Chere 5k race this past weekend with Joe. We met my parents up there- my dad was also running the race. Since I have had a hurt shoulder, I figured why not enter a 5k? It’d be a fun way to see my parents and spend some time with Joe.
So Joe and I packed up and headed out for the four hour drive to Asheville on Friday after he got off of work. We were going to stay the weekend up in Asheville and enjoy the festival and riding up in the mountains, but the weather was bad (rainy-ick!) so we decided to go ahead and come back home after the race.

The race itself was hard! I mean the course was hilly and I was just trying to keep up with those fast guys and jeez… the downhills absolutely killed me. With the rain and all I was scared of falling on the slick paint or oily spots on the road, and I would have to remind myself, “Alisha, you aren’t on a bike, you’re on your feet…” But knowing my clumsy self I didn’t want to take any chances!

I ended up coming home in a 17:55, but the timing chip system clocked me at 18:00. I was kinda discouraged about that time, but I am pretty hard on myself. The winning guys’ time was 15:37 and he said that he usually runs 14:30s on the track… so that made me feel better. It just proved to me that it truly was a challenging course.

My dad and Joe finished shortly after me, and I turned around and ran cheering for Joe down the home stretch. I was so happy he was there.

After the awards we decided to skip walking thru the festival and seek shelter from the rain at Atlanta Bread Company. It was nice sitting around sipping a large Latte and talking with my parents.

It’s my brother’s 20th birthday today! Happy Birthday GREG!!! He’s in a really cool band, Pax Imperia, and he played last night in Spruce Pine, NC.

So my friend Gina and I were training together in Arizona this winter and somehow we always get real crazy when we’re together. On one of our rides we decided to start calling everyone we saw on a bike a “friend.” Soon we were saying “hi friend!” with goofy smiles on our faces to everyone we saw on a bike… didn’t matter when, where, what kind of bike… if someone was on a bike we were sayin “hey! LOOK! another FRIEND!”… then we’d laugh like idiots at eachother.

But it’s really funny how I’ve met so many great friends from cycling. This past weekend I was able to enjoy some nice pace rides with many friends… some new, some old.

My shoulder is getting stronger by the day, and that is very encouraging. I know this is due to the massage therapy that Lal has been giving me at Athletic Edge and the physical therapy I’ve been doing in the pool. It’s amazing how every week I see improvement now, whereas before I was struggling to see any change at all… for better or worse. It’s nice to be past the “it hurts too much to do anything but rest it” phase. I’ve always been more the active recovery type anyways!
So now that I am able to be on the bike I can enjoy the reason that I do this sport to begin with… feeling the wind in my face, watching the countryside go by, listening to the sounds of the citys and towns I ride through, and connecting with friends and meeting new people along the way.

I had the pleasure of riding with my friend Diana Conn both Saturday and Sunday. My husband came out for the ride on Saturday. I met a triathlete on Saturday who is going to try to qualify for Kona next year. I met a guy who rode a mountain bike marathon in Austria. On Sunday I got to ride with a cool triathlete chick from Durham, Alicia Parr. She’ll be some good competition when I do some tri’s later this fall!
And of course there’s Gray. We talk about growing all kinds of different veggies and fruits. I want to start my own garden, and he’s giving me tips on what grows well and how to plant stuff because I have no idea what to do. Joe seems to thing you can just plant stuff and it’ll grow, but there actually is certain times of the year that you are spose to plant things and all that, so Gray is giving me the scoop. He’s going to bring me some figs from his garden.

Diana’s husband, Jeremy, even came out and rode with us for a bit on Sunday. So many friends, so little time!
Lots of my friends were racing at the French Broad Cycling Classic and were missed on the rides this weekend.

I am so happy that cycling has brought all these interesting people into my life. It’s a big part of why I love it so much.

See you on the road! (all be it nice a slow, just wait til my shoulder is all better!)

Alisha Lion recently got a report from the orthopedic doctor and she is well on her way to healing up 100%. She still has one more month before another doctor recheck, but in the meantime is slowly moving back onto the bike.

Now riding more consistently on the hoods and adding more intensity to her training, Lion is enduring in the heat that has swept much of the Southern States this summer.

In early August Alisha will start physical therapy on her shoulder to restrengthen the joint. The past few weeks Athletic Edge Sports Massage in Cary, NC has been an integral part in keeping Alisha’s shoulder strong enough to be able to train effectively.

Thanks to all the support Alisha has received from friends and family during her injury.

Okay, again it has been too long since I made an update. It’s been very difficult mentally going through this injury I sustained from Philly. For those of you that don’t know- I have a separated AC joint in my right shoulder. It’s taking it’s time healing, as it happened June 11th and I still can’t race for another month.

This injury has taken me out of Nature Valley, Nationals, Cascade, and now Altoona. That has pretty much taken the second half of the season away from me. It’s been a tough pill to swallow.

I had a rough couple weeks in June until Joe got home at the end of the month. Since he’s been home things have really gotten better. We are both back at our home in Holly Springs and we’ve been busy getting re-settled after our year long living experience in Munich. It’s been great being back in our own home with our dog and getting reconnected with all my friends that are in the area.

I am slowly getting back on the bike, and I have been able to ride just about every day the past week. I’m moving to riding more on the hoods now than before. It’s good to see small progress like that.

Since Joe and I are reaquainted with our house now I have more time to keep updates going. Big things going on in my life now are that I am waiting to hear about my substitute teaching application status from Wake County and I am going to start coaching beginner athletes under Charlie Storm with Storm Endurance Sports. If you are interested in coaching services, whether it be for running, cycling, or triathlons (I’ve got experience in all of those backgrounds) contact me and we’ll see what we can do!
We’ve been enjoying the weekends at the State Farmer’s Market and going shopping for things to get our house in order. Joe has spent a lot of time at the Home Depot for our lawn. It was a jungle!

Well, I promise to check in soon… in the meantime be sure to follow the Webcor-Platinum girls on the team blog and website. My teammate, Amber, just won a stage at Cascade and they are heading to Altoona this weekend. Cheer them on to victory!