da hillz r alive.

Aside from being buzzed about the new road rig, all week long I've felt like part of me was being beaten with sticks. Tuesday it was my psyche, then Wednesday it was my nose and throat, and by Thursday I was so achy that my legs felt like they'd just done a 'cross race. Friday I woke up still hurting and went to bed congested (after giving my liver a small sucker punch via margarita at a friend's birthday 'do). However, I think the Patron actually worked miracles, because Saturday I felt better in the nose--that is to say, well enough to take the new bike out for an hour. That was fun, but the fit is not quite spot-on yet, particularly insofar as the cleat positioning is concerned. Given my history with patello-femoral syndrome I still need to tweak that more, and that will be my evening project for this week. And finally, given the disgusting cold I had, I decided to not do Wells, and just make it a training weekend.

Before anyone starts offering me any cheese to go with my whine... I had a great ride today! Today I went out on (what is now) my commuter/beater road bike for the Sunday ride with Kathy and Sallie. We did Kathy's route to Sudbury, and Cathy also joined us, which was awesome. Cathy's a Cat 2 but had raced yesterday, so she (supposedly) was tired. Worked well for us, though, as she was still willing to take turns pulling. Cathy does it all--road, XC, and CX--so she races and rides with a great mix of tactics and instinct. Today I learned a lot about picking lines on a bad road simply from following her wheel. It was also a blast chasing her up hills. On the first one, I felt like my lungs were--you guessed it--being beaten with sticks... but after that, I started having a lot of fun. Cannot WAIT to climb on the new bike!