Riding 'round

Now that I think about it, I spent a fair amount of time in the saddle this weekend.

Bike Clinic
Saturday I decided to check out a bike clinic and see if I could gain some insight into developing more bike handling skills and fun stuff like that. I think SO much about bike handling is...well..not thinking about it. There are some things to think about, but if a person thinks too much about it...more likely than not one will fail while attempting to do it. We practiced picking up water bottles off of the ground and playing tag...on our bikes and other fun things...but many times I realized if I could just shut my mind off about the thought of: how does one do this? How do I do this? Will i tip over when I do it?...and just DO it...it is so much easier. Analytical skills do not come in handy here. I did pick up a handy tip on cornering though...LOOK where you want to go eventually. Look through the corner and your bike will go where you intend it to. I thought I was doing it, but at one point one instructor sorta yelled 'Look ahead' while it was my turn and I realized I wasn't doing it and once I did look ahead the cornering got SO much easier.

Women only ride
Sunday My LBS was sponsoring a women only ride and I thought I'd check it out since my friends were going to be there. I don't normally skip church to go on a bike ride, but these things can happen in the middle of January when its 80 degrees outside. Always fun to meet more women who enjoy riding so i thought it would be good time, and it was a lot of fun. It was a pretty chill ride which was great and I got to meet some fun women, but one of the thoughts that I kept realizing as we were climbing up hills and such...was around how fit I was for January. My HIM training started on Monday and the reality that I am as fit as I am right now as I start my base building is really amazing. I think my main two things this season I only worry about are: burnout and aggravating my psoas injury. If I can avoid both...this could be a really great racing year for me.

Track Sunday
And what would a weekend be without...the track? Sigh. It might become apparent that I could write a post every week about the track that basically just says: I love the track. And not much else. I basically would write: I love the track and post the same picture every time and well...it would pretty much get my point across...which is I love my bike AND the track. sigh. Ok...i incorporated a new picture...this one has PONY on my bike. She deserves her own post in all rightfulness...but PONY rocks pretty much. She came to Europe on my last trip with me (really she did!). Side note: she used to be a purse PONY but I swear she chewed through my purse strap on the trip and protested being in the purse. So now she just sits on my dresser...but I may have to find a new purse and see if she will tolerate a new purse or not. (If you haven't figured out by now, I have a penchant for silliness on a regular occasion).

Anyway, back to the track...sorry I get distracted easily. By the time I got there I was actually pretty tired. Between getting a 'baby cold', not sleeping well and then riding on Sunday morning I was pretty tired...but I still managed to get in about 15 miles on the track in total. Some nice paceline work, got dusted in a sprint and generally just enjoyed being out there...like I normally do.

Overall a great weekend, but I fear my baby cold is turning into a monster malaise. While the level of horrible coldness isn't that bad, I feel terrible. No energy at all. I would have left work at 1 today except I had an important meeting and now I am counting down the minutes til I can go to bed as I don't want to go to bed too early for fear then I'd just wake up at 2am and not sleep anymore. Oh YEA...i can go to bed now!! Excited.