Morning Dash

I can't seem to drag my butt out of bed earlier than 8am. I've set my alarm clock to some up beat hipster music and as soon as I heard Madonna belching out some chords I decided enough was enough. Walk like an Egyptian. (Yeah, yeah - Bangles, I know.)

First thing's first - must drink coffee. Open pot, pour in water, put in filter and fill with coffee grinds. Glance outside - oh yeah, it's Friday - garbage day.

But no worries, the garbage man doesn't usually come until late morning and no one else has their bins out on the street. As I'm taking my sweet ass time and downing my second half of java - I hear the brakes squeel up the street - and make a mad dash to put some pants on so I don't show the neighborhood my pj's. Luckily my next door neighbor heard him too - and dashed to grab her two bins which gave me just enough time to grab our garbage and give it to the driver. Phew - close call! The guy just laughed at us.

I needed that though - an interruption of the typical routine. Something to remind you the world is spinning around you and if you're not careful it will knock you on your bum.

Training wise - I decided after Sunday's jaunt to start putting some mileage on the saddle and build racing miles up. The hammy seems to be taking it ok - so why not? I rode with Miller and Nick Tuesday night and we did some nice interval work. I was wrecked the following day. Mr. T wanted to go for a ride on Magnolia and I was pathetic - my legs were torn up. Thursday was better - I met up with Kari and we headed down the trail only to get drenched. It was chilly too - only 36 in the morning and it really didn't warm up all day. She peeled off in Kenmore and then I rode home solo. I really stopped and smelled the cold wet roses. And then the self -doubt and questioning started creeping into my head. In retrospect - having those feelings is perfectly normal. I'm starting to train hard again and it's been a month of easy cheesy. It should be a shock to the body. I took for granted how adapted I was to riding before - and now that my body is getting back to it - it's starting to protest.

I got home and listened to a message from Kari. Apparently the Redlands race director called her and said that Ti needs 5 women to race or they can't race. I'm frantically searching to find a replacement. Otherwise I will travel down there, use it as training and just see how long I can last. Flipping hamstring. Why did it have to blow out this year?