Thursday Night Ride tonight! Good weather too - 70 degrees and cloudy. Not so hot out, cars can see us, but no squinting. :)

TNR!! There were three speeds for me today: stopped at the regroup, Going to Puke, Tasting Bile. Again, I have never worked this hard. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate keeping up with the sprinters. Nah.

Naked again. My HR watch could not be found, and for some idiotic reason, my cyclometer refused to do it's job so no cadence or speed. No speed on TNR!!! Carp. I LOVE knowing how fast I'm going.

We had a really good turnout - I think the signup sheet showed 18 riders. British Guy (Kevin) was there, Lampre team kit Guy, Bert, Tim, Napoleon, even Ken was there. I think Sascha (Moots guy) was missing. We had one newbie - I always worry when they show up on a commuter bike and are wearing a baggy cotton t-shirt. (We range from full team kit to regular Nashbar style) His bike was actually pretty good (i.e. light, not heavy/clunky), but still, it had the rack on the back.

So off we went. On the way to Rocky Butte (RB), I chatted with ride leader Dennis, and found out that the two people we dropped last week came out to his Monday night ride and were fine (that is a MUCH slower, cruiser no-drop ride). I was glad. I felt bad that we dropped them and left last week.

Since today was not too hot, I decided that today was going to be The Day that I Kept Hubby's Wheel all the way up RB. Fortunately for me he was not trying to PR today. Ha! There are three climbs. #1 is about 1/4 mile and ends at the tunnel. I was right on his wheel. Lots of passing occurs, mostly other people going by us, but miraculously a little of us going by (2) others. Tunnel is 100 yards-ish. Short sortof rest. It isn't really flat, but feels flat after the first bit. #2 is a 1/4 mile variably steeper climb. Right on his wheel... ...  ... Dammit. Got halfway up and just didn't have any more. Astonishingly, there were two people on MY wheel!! Huh??? People on MY wheel going up RB?? So hubby kept going, and I steadily lost ground, but caught up to someone else - the newbie I think. Went around him, hit the flat section, short downhill and started up #3. Hubby was up there and there was another rider to chase as well. Didn't catch them but caught up a little. I SO wish that I'd had my watch or something. I think this would have been a PR. Next time.

At regroup point at the top of RB, hubby tried to adjust my cyclometer. No go. It wouldn't cooperate. So no speed info - funny though, I got various speed updates along the way since they knew that I didn't know.

The sprint out Fremont was fun. I got mu usual jump, chased down the lead guy, blasted past and kept the pace as long as I could and waited for Ken. Yup. ZOOOOOOM! Surprised there wasn't a sonic boom. LOL He went by me probably 5mph faster than I was going, but it felt like standing still watching him go. The guy I passed had grabbed my wheel, and tried to grab Ken's - coulda told him it wouldn't do him a bit of good. It didn't. The trip back to the post office was tough - usually is as I tap myself out on the sprint and have to work to keep up. The sprint is too much fun to skip though and I'm getting a bit quicker on the recovery.

The trip out Airport way was fast and furious - this time we got to 31. Criminy. No wonder I felt queasy and had thigh burn. Same story out Cornfoot. I did keep up with the front group, and hung on to one of the sprint guys for a few hundred feet. Fun!

When we got back to the park we actually had a group of us to stand around talking. The new guy had a good time, kept up and will likely be back. He likes it that we hammer.

Bagged the planned run and instead had a GREAT evening with two fabulous BT chicks, NightOwl and SweetK. We had some wonderful vietnamese food, and then went to Papa Haydn's for dessert. Good fun and great company - can't wait 'til we can do it again. :)

Kori, did I talk you into doing the Luna??? Come on, it'll be fun. You know you want to..... :)

Hubby didn't feel well so I went to the gym on my own. There was no one but me in the weight roomfor a while then this other chick came in. Eventually she wanted to know what i was doing, where I got my list, did I have a trainer, etc etc. So I got to WAY talk up my trainer, my 50# loss, getting stronger... fun! She was nice and I gave her my trainer's info. Then showed her how to do some different lifting exercises on the swiss ball because she wanted to know. Cool!

Swim was short due to the above chatting, but I'll go again friday. This time, all the pieces seemed to come together better. Nice! Oh and the pool was SO crowded. There was one person in each lane!!! (including me in my lane) Imagine the conditions! hahaha. :)

I mention drills, I now have drills. Yay the trainer. :) He appears to want to thwart me from spending money on a new wheel/cassette. Something about losing the # off my azz before worrying about the cassette. Sheesh. Conveniently, doing lot of drills helps with the azz ###. I think it's a plot.

PIR tonight. I think I'll race novice once or twice more and see how it goes. If Crazy Swervy Chick is there again, I shall make sure to stay away from her.

Yep. That's right. I rode naked. If my head wasn't attached I'm sure I would've forgotten it. I forgot my cyclometer, so no cadence, speed, average speed, maximum sprint speed, or time. I forgot my heart rate monitor so no HR info. And y'all know how I love data! I forgot my watch so I had to keep asking what time it was so I wouldn't miss my start. I left my hubby's cell phone at work. The reason I even had hubby's cell was because I left MINE at home this morning. I'm surprised that I actually had my race number and clothing.

So it was all by feel today. Left me free to observe what everyone else  was doing (12 on the field), or just plain wonder WTF?. There was a sorta heavy chick in a green jersey that kept going up the side up to the front to pull. She never lasted very long and would end up back in 7th or so position, so I wasn't really sure what was up. There were two Sorella team chicks that traded off pulling nearly the whole way. Marca was there, she is the chick that never pulls, sits in second (this time third)position, and then wins the end sprint. This slightly annoys me. Seems like a person outta suck it up and pull their share if they're going to just camp out in second position blocking anyone else that would help the first rider. She is FAST though. I need some sprint work. She will be mine by the end of this summer. Put it on your calendar.

Oh. I got 4th. :)

While warming up, I heard someone calling me - it was Ken-who-is-fast from Thursday Night Ride! We've rarely spoken - I didn't know he knew my name. We chatted around the warmup area and he's been racing at PIR and Alpenrose all the time so that's why he hasn't been at TNR. He thought I had been racing last year too, but I said no. I said that the novice women's group was a bit odd (no trading pulling, etc.) He said I ought to be able to keep up with the Cat 4/5 men's group. Cool! Maybe I'll try that some time.

I went to the tri store and got a kickboard this afternoon. Gotta do the practice drills. :) My swim coach is trying to qualify for the Olympic trials (I think) tonight. I'm thinking fast thoughts for him. I hope that working with him will get me an 800m result less than 19:36.

We increased our distance a little bit. I want to do most of my runs at 6-7 miles. We had been doing 3-5. It was okay. Not a great pace. I've had a stomachache all day off and on, and it was on for the run. Yucky.

I guess I'm ready for another week. It's the last push for the project - due by the 1st. Tomorrow is PIR - should be fun. :)

Shopping!! I dropped in at Bicyclinghub.com's brick store today. I got some short-short periwinkle blue Castelli shorts and an awesome top. LOVE the top. Makes me look like I have boobs! And what's not to like about that? I think I'll break in the shorts today. One thing I noticed on the TNR is that as I looked at butts up the line (that's RIGHT I do...), it looks like half of us ride for 'team Castelli' with little scorpion logos all lined up on the left hip. So me too. :) And not so expensive. Nice!

Ride and swim today.

Ride: "Effin' A!!!! I am taking that bike back!!!" Umm... Sorry I dropped you sweetie. :) He wasn't actually mad. He's proud of me for making huge progress. 50 pounds ago 17 was really really fast and he'd have to wait for me. Today, battling a hella crosswind, I did 21-22. Yay me! I did drop him though. And worse, I made it look easy. I may have to do dishes for a while.

Swim: Practicing what my swim coach says is way harder that it seems like it would be. I can only mentally "watch" two or three things at once. He gave me more than that. Shoulder shrug, elbow up, drag fingers, hold breath, blow out and breathe early, full catch-up, feet together... I sorta got most of the upper body stuff. Who knows wth my feet were doing down there. Maybe nothing. LOL!

Friday and Rest Day!

I started listening to Three Cups of Tea (audio book) while knitting this evening. Fascinating story. It starts out with a guy who was on a team who attempted K2,  one guy on the team got pulmonary edema, in rescueing him the main character and one other guy gave up their own bids for the summit.  The main character ends up recuperating in a little village in Pakistan, and promises to build them a school. I'm only as far as him raising some money and going back to the village. He apparently has continued his mission and has built something like 50 schools in Pakistan. So far it's really interesting. He is a person who is completely NOT about stuff. That alone is fascinating to a packrat like me. He sold everything he owned to afford plane fare and living expenses while he built the school. Amazing.

In between knitting rows and changing 'book' CDs, Kona and I played tennis ball. I throw it, she occasionally brings it back, or comes back to pester me about getting it out from under whatever piece of furniture she's lost it under. Good times. :)