The Long Weekend

I love 3-day weekends and this one had the potential to be awesome.  I had a RARE day off on the 4th so Michael and I took the kiddos and Primo up to Golden Gate State Park for a "hike" and a picnic.  The weather was perfect and we found a nice trail just to play around on.  Of course, Charlotte only "hiked" for about 10 minutes and then she wanted to be held and ended up on Michael's shoulders.  I tried to teach the girls the art of peeing and squatting.....they don't quite have the concept yet.  Primo in all of his 10 years did pretty well but after 45 minutes he was done too.  We had a nice little lunch and a quiet drive home with everyone (including me) sleeping.

Our neighbors, Dan and Nancy, had some folks over for a bar-be-que and to watch fireworks from the deck.  It was a great night relaxing and catching up with friends.  But then it was time to get prepped for the BIG ride up Mt. Evans on Saturday:  32.5 miles of pure uphill to the 14,000 foot summit.  I had my bottles and food ready, my bag of extra clothes for the sag wagon and I was psyched!!  Until 5:00am the next morning when Charlotte came into the room and said she made a mess.  Uh oh.  The mess included about everything she consumed the night before all over everything.....I cuddled with her while Michael went about cleaning the mess.  At that point I was still going, put my waffles in the toaster applied the sunscreen.....and then the call came from above.  Well, our room actually.  Charlotte made a mess in our bed.  Off came the riding clothes, left a couple of messages and I went into full mommy mode.  Poor thing......we all slept together for the next few hours and she seemed to be doing a bit better.

At this point I had a little bit (read: tons) of extra energy/anxiousness since I wasn't doing the workout I had anticipated.  So, at 10am I left for a little run in the 90 degree heat.  And, I was anxious, so I took it out too fast.  Did I mention it was hot???  Yikes, at mile 4 I kind of hit a wall and had to walk/jog for the rest of the way.   YUCK.  When I got back home sweat was just dripping off of me - like I just got out of a pool.  I guess I was well hydrated:)  

Michael's college friend and family was in town and we went to a wine tasting party with them and our kids were able to play together while we caught up.  It was a really fun night and the wine tasting was a hoot.

Sunday morning arrived and I left early to ride the Shadow Mountain ride:  50 miles, 3 major climbs totalling around 9,000 feet.  My coach, Steve, gave me the go ahead to do the ride and follow it up with a run after.  So off I went.  I wasn't anxious at all - even though I was riding alone - and I followed the plan:  easy warm-up effort to the first switchback, and the race pace effort through the backside of Deer Creek.  Whew!  I only had one pit stop at the top of High Grade, and did the ride in 3:30.  On the downhills, I worked very hard to get comfortable and not freak out at every sighting of gravel.  And I was worked but had to transition to a run.....I took off towards the Rez and did 3 miles.  It was difficult, my legs were beat and my heart rate was not cooperating.  But I did it and am very pleased with the effort.  

Afterwards, I met the family at the pool and we played around for a bit.  And then we acquired something VERY cool:  a treadmill and a weight set courtesy of my parents who are moving soon and will not need those items!!!!  A nice addition for winter training, and when Michael is out of town.  Of course, the most important item we acquired was a big girl bed for Charlotte!!  

Thank you Michael for dealing with my anxiety this weekend and letting have the time to go ride Shadow!!!