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.