Slow and not so easy

Friday, August 29, 2008

Rode the Worm with Fredricka.  She wasn't feeling well so we took it easy.  We only rode the worm, but I was still soaked with sweat when we finished.  It was good to get out to ride, and it was nice to do an easy ride.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Rode Sawyer with a coed group.  I like the slower coed groups; they tend to keep up a better pace than the women only (less stopping) groups.  We rode in on the Toy trail got lost in the plains and finished off on Toy trail.  I was comfortably in the middle of the pack.  I'm not overly fast this year but I have better than average technical skills and this makes up for a lot of speed!  It was a fun ride and I had to work hard.  Fredricka led and Jerry rode sweep.  I really like Sawyer.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Today I ride with Julie at Beaver.  I haven't been to Beaver since June which is crazy because it is only a 20 minute ride from home (or 15 minutes in the car).  It is closer to 45 minutes to an hour from home if you want to get to the Soaring Eagle park to meet someone.

Wet and Fun

Monday

I rode with Julie at Tolt.  I've not had much energy lately.  Not sure if it is just that I haven't  ridden much this summer; but what ever the reason, it sucks.  It took us forever to push our bikes up Its a bitch, and it took me another half hour to warm up.  I will admit I've felt fairly good for about one hour in the middle of my rides.  It might just be taking me longer to warm up.  Once we climbed to the trails, it started raining.  I was a bit nervous about wet roots; but my wet riding skills came back quickly.  It was a fun ride.  We were out for a total of 3 hours and rode Oxbow, the Bypass, MLR, Dancing, I-90.  We finished in the pouring rain.

After the ride, I helped Julie fill in a large hole in her yard.  She put a new sewer line in and still needed to finish the job by filling in the hole around the new pipes.  It has been a while since I did manual labor; but it felt good despite the rain.  By the time I headed home I was drenched and pretty muddy.

Back in the Pool

Sunday I finally made it back in the pool.  It felt good.  I didn't swim long (my goal for this week is 15 minutes with an addition of 5 minutes a week).  I've had some neck and upper back issues that reappear every few months, and they showed up after (immediately after) riding a log pile at the worm on Saturday.  The log pile started on the flat but finished with a bit of a drop.  I immediately felt my neck and upper back complain.  So my plan is to let my body get use to swimming again as well as try to keep my neck in a steady place.  For some reason I like to flay around when I breathe.  The other good news is that I tried using a nose plug.  It took a while to get use to not breathing through my nose, but the good news is no allergic reaction to the pool.  The last few times I swam at SU I was congested for a day.  I like the Klahanie pools (especially since I don't pay to use them). I will miss the Masters group; but until I finish my MBA, I can't make it to SU to swim.  I'm planning on giving up my locker...I hope I don't regret it.  For now, with me taking the bus to work, it is just too difficult to make it to the gym before work.  Although I am contemplating taking a Yoga class after work.  I feel like I need to limber up a bit.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Rode the worm with the Luna Chix.  I was beat after Friday's ride.  I've not felt well for a few weeks...and am just starting to feel recovered.  In June I rode 6 our of 7 days the week I took vacation.  It was clear to me on this ride that I'm taking Sunday off...just need a rest day.  The worm is really a tough ride.  It is tight turns, lots of technical and short climbs and descents.  The cool thing is that I was one of the best technical riders of the day.  Friends have told me for years (even on the road bike) that I have really good skills on the bike.  Today I started believing them.  There were several areas that the group stopped to session....many of them are things I've been riding since my first year on the mountain bike.  By the time we finished I was finished.  I was hurting a bit at the start (30 minutes or so), after that I felt really good for the middle section; but by the end I was one tired girl.  

I had dinner with a group (the old stock club) of people from Prep.  I had a great time and of course Val is always an inspiration.  She wins her age group at Danskin each year (50-54) which is really cool.  She has me thinking about racing again.  One of the things I like about Val is that she races sprint distance without any desire or need to race longer races.  I had so much trouble with my legs (stress fractures) when I was trying to race the Olympic distance that running was always painful.  I'm thinking about training for Danskin next year.  It would get me back into Triathlon without making it my whole life.  Of course I'm thinking that I'd like to race some of the mountain bike races as well.  It is a good thought especially since I'll be done with my MBA by the end of March.   Speaking of the MBA, I survived Macroeconomics.  I was having nightmares about having to repeat it!  I was thrilled to see my grade and know I was done with it.  It is funny, I had an A- going into the final...don't know why I was so nervous about it. 

I'm hoping the weather will clear up a bit for September and October.  I'm class free until end of September so I'd love to get more riding in.  I've also gained several new riding partners which is really cool.  It is time for me to get at least 3 rides in a week, even if they are on the spin bike.  Later this morning I'm heading over to the Lakeview pool for my first swim of the season.  I'm not going to push it; but I'd like to swim a couple of times a week.  I've really missed the swimming and running...both of which I want to pick up again (slowly and gently).

Friday, August 22, 2008

Fredricka and I rode Lake Sawyer.  We had planned to ride skookum.  I was thrilled to hear Fredricka say that Skookum might be too wet.  I was not looking forward to that much climbing and technical on a wet trail with exposure.  I followed Fredricka around Sawyer.  We rode half of Toy trail and then headed over to Eds then found two dead ends in a row.  One of them I had found with Katie a couple of years ago.  Once I recognized the the dead end, I was excited because I had cleared a big log at the end.  We got to the log and it was not as "big" as I remembered.  Then Fredricka took me to the first part of the Xterra course.  It is very technical and a bit of a bitch.  I'm fairly glad I didn't race this; I wasn't in good enough shape to feel good about this ride.  We hiked a bike much of it.  We finished with the same part of Toy Trail that we rode in.  We were out for about 2.5 hours.  It was a great ride, and Fredricka and I are fairly well matched on the bikes.  

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Rode the Worm on one of Tom's rides.  We rode DNA, Tape Worm, and then half of Parasite (I bailed half way through Parasite).  I had good energy which is good since I've been sick a bit this month.  It felt good to be out on the bike.

School time blues

This weekend my goal was to finish all of my homework for the final two weeks of class.  I have two advanced reading papers and two projects for finance and a report for economics.  I finished it all by 3:00pm on Sunday.  Granted I had one of the projects done last week.  So I rewarded myself with a beer.  It has been a long time since my last afternoon beer!  I still have to show up for class for the next 2 weeks and I have one final (which I'm ready for...or at least as ready as I'm going to be since I don't plan to study next weekend).  I'm done with class till the end of September...so I will get to ride any day of the week I want...I'm so ready to start riding my bike.  Last night I started my slacker time with half a novel...it has been six months since I've read anything other than textbooks.  I'm even thinking about starting my sewing project (yeah...I didn't mention I'm taking up sewing) ....watch out Martha Stewart!

I feel like a free woman.  So happy!