Last ride, then leaving (Mark Challenge Blog)

(This is hard. For my blog readers: Mark has challenged me to write entire entries without the letter “o”. I believe that my already challenged writing suffers extensive damage when I drop this precious letter, but Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company Sweet Italian is worth a high price... what to do? What to do?)

I am riding this evening, my last, and then I leave here. (MARK: one sentence down, no “o”’s) Ahead lies France, The Netherlands and Italy and the best racing in the galaxy. (Two sentences: I want a full pound of Sweet Italian Roast, ground for cone filter) After I write this, I will ride my last ride which will be 2 minute and 1 minute hard intervals. This gets me race ready... finished with nearly all my training... just this single ride left. Then I get back here and pack up my things, clean and pack my bike and all the unfinished business that needs attending. Namely, packing. I believe I am an excellent packer. I pack light, but am generally very anal and am very careful in getting my things arranged. I put in vast energies when I pack, thinking carefully and planning. I like it.

OK- do I am done with the Mark Challenge for now. I am not a brilliant character like Mark who is able to do things like this with verbal grace and erudition. For me, I blunder along and allow my fingers to fall on that silly key above my right ring finger... I CAN’T DO IT MARK! I can’t! How can you ask of a silly loquacious girl, such as myself, to stifle my self-expression!? I cannot speak freely if I am banned of certain key strokes! We all know how much I love to hear myself talk... I AM such an interesting conversationalist (just this morning, I had an interesting discussion with myself on the merits of sympatric speciation models. I am not quite sure I agree with all of Dr. Brooke’s views on the topic, but it was an interesting heuristic discussion none the less) and I can hear my voice when I read my dribble. So, I chose to abandon this fruitless pursuit and will simply purchase my coffee online... thank you very much!

In all honesty, I am sitting on the couch, writing in this blog when I really should be on my bike. I am about to head out, but I have some momentum tying me to this green couch. I am not a big fan of afternoon riding, but I chose to sleep in this AM and run some errands before heading out. I am actually quite excited to ride: it is a gorgeous day! But I am also waiting for the heat to lessen a bit. I have my last training ride before I leave! I had a GREAT ride yesterday and am excited to get out again today. I felt SO strong! And I needed it too. I did not spell it out in my blog, but for those in-between-the-line readers, the last few workouts I had been struggling. I was tired! Training hard does really take it out of you and I really hate having more than one bad ride in a row. I had a bad ride on friday and then another bad one on Sat... on Sat, I could not get my heart rate up and was caught in the rain. Just a not good day on the bike. But yesterday redeemed it all! Just as any good ride should! It was a gorgeous day and I was fresh off of some much needed time off. I had two 20 minute intervals and I just felt invincible. It is fun when you have those days- which do not happen often, might I ad! Today, I have the short intervals then get to pack and wash my bike etc. I really should get a move on. But I did want to try Mark’s challenge. I don’t always respond to comments on my blog, but I do love them! (Thanks Heather!!!! by the way!). Ok, momentum be dammed... I am out of here!