Yo Sem Mighty!

What a day at the office, walking around a site (in the national park of Yosemite) for about 5 hours, taking a stroll on the valley floor staring at the amazing waterfall tumbling 3,000 feet from the heavens, gazing up at the giant granite half dome at sunset, THEN dining at the Awahanee Hotel. Gotta love my job, eh?

Crits are Crazy

Nearly 50 women line up for Stage 2 of the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race; the criterium in downtown Enumclaw, which was held just 4 hours after we went all out for the TT was my first ever crit and thank God it was dry. I knew I needed some eraser experiences for the crash I had in Sequim just 9 weeks ago. I decided to jump out in front and narrow the field. In just two pedal strokes, I was in front charging the group and thinning it to about 15 racers. Then on lap 3, my team mate Chris went down and it spooked me. She joined the race on the next lap with huge rips in her beautiful skin suit. She managed to finish at 6th, me at 8th. I was happy...as I was second in GC and she was 3rd. Here is a GREAT shot of me running the front during the Crit.

Back in The Saddle

Saturday morning I woke feeling fast. I told Chris..."I'm so frickin' fast today, I'm going to win." And win I did. With over 30 entrants in the race, I rocketed my TT bike over the 6.5 mile race in 16 minutes. Okay...so its not Dave Z, but it was enough to put me in 1st place and hold the Golden Jersey before the Crit that evening. Here is an awesome shot of me in pain during the last 1000M in the race. Thanks Colin!

Race this Weekend

Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race. Road Race Course.

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Ooops!

Funny thing...
I've been posting random muses on my dead blog post and just realized it. Oh well...here is my post from two days ago. I'll try to be more careful.

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The body's healing process has been something of a wonder and pure amazement. The mind dabbles in a space that grows accustomed to pain and immobility or various restriction; it wonders if it will experience freedom again or what it once had. Then each passing day unravels change and grand leaps of improvements. Joy and pleasure filled me as I am astounded at the "new" things I do. Its odd that we need such rainy days to love the sun even more. I now respect having a collar bone, being able to embrace others, lift things above my head, etc.

This morning I felt the open sky emerging at precisely 4:30am, no cloud to obstruct the pink hues emerging from the horizon. Wanting to feel those warm tones and the stillness of the morning, I mounted my bike at 5:20am and rode for 3 glorious hours starring at Mount Rainer and the stillness of lake Washington. So...YES, time to celebrate...in fact we should celebrate each day. Still feeling those endorphines from this morning (can you tell?).