My own mini-comeback

I am finally feeling normal again! My strength is building, the coughing attacks are slowing down and my sinuses are clear for the most part. Combine that with our inexplicably gorgeous weather and that meant it was time to ride. That's right! This weekend I was able to get back on track.

On Saturday, I participated in the "Ride the Route". This was an organized ride with Team Swift. The plan was to ride, by bike or van, to Calistoga and then cycle back to Santa Rosa following the same route as the Tour of California. In addition to Team Swift, numerous women pro-cyclists were expected to ride. Although I did not get all of their names, we did have pro women from the Webcor Builders, SugarCRM, and Team ValueAct Capital cycling teams. The ride was also fully supported by Team Swift, West County Revolution, and Fitness Journal.

I thought the route out and back was around 50 miles with 2 major climbs (it was actually closer to 43 miles). Since I was just coming off my cold and wasn't sure where my strength was yet, I decided to help Chris, Mr. Fitness Journal, get bikes to Calistoga and then cycle back. So we reach Calistoga, unload the bikes and wait for the riders to show up so we can start the ride back.

Finally, around 1:00 we head back to Santa Rosa. On this route you don't even go a mile before you hit the big climb of the day. Calistoga Grade gains nearly 1000 feet in less then 2 miles. So I hit the climb and something amazing happens. I don't feel ill or weak. Instead I feel strong and rested. I almost immediately find a great rhythm and up the hill I go. I can honestly say I never wavered from that initial rhythm and finished the climb still rocking in the middle ring. The rest of the ride was up and down back into town. So it was a strong but a short ride. In the end, I logged a grand total of 17 miles.

On Sunday, Coach Tim and I headed out in the early morning cold. We kept things nice and easy. It was one of those rides where chatting was more important then heart rate. We finished with a solid 32 miles and some great coffee. Monday was more of the same. David and I left at 12:30 to avoid the cold temps and put in a very nice 35 mile ride, with me on the single speed, that also ended with great coffee and great conversation.

I also spent some time this weekend tweaking the blog a little. You may notice I now have a philosophy statement. I have quoted Coach Tim's philosophy of "if you can't be fast, look fast" many times. My new variation, "if you can't be fast, have fun being slow" came from chatting with Chris. Chris also sent me the links to 3 blog collection web sites that focus on cycling. I have submitted my blog to all 3 sites and a requirement for each site was to have a link from here. So I restructured the blog listings a touch.

So there you have it. I can feel my strength returning, I'm paying more attention to my writing, and I am ready to finally tackle 2009. And, there's still plenty of time left to make this a great year.

Ciao!