Mortal on the Mountain: Phenomenal Weekend!

After eons of rain, stress from exams, severe allergies/respiratory infection, I was finally able to get outside and love Colorado this weekend. I forget how much I need to be outside!

This season's training is off to a slow start. I am feeling recovered from the overtraining, but I am ramping back up very carefully. The end of the semester was two weeks of massive stress, so I focused on being very gentle with myself. I had very little time, so I focused on easy bike rides and swims paying very close attention to how I feel and only working as hard as I want.

Through this recovery process, I have learned to really celebrate what I have accomplished and enjoy my sports for just being sports that bring me pleasure. I don't need to be faster or stronger than anyone... this week, I bought a "new" bike. It is a 1979 Schwinn Suburban cruiser for commuting to school. I LOVE IT... not because it is fancy, but because it reminds me that riding bikes is fun. I can just take it easy and revel in the pleasure of the journey...

Mindy and Danielle starting up the trail

So, this weekend was focused on just that idea, with some pretty cool accomplishments thrown in. Saturday, I felt like I should run, but I have a terrible cough that was pretty unbearable after my run on Tuesday. I decided to substitute a hike, and, fortunately, my friend, Danielle, was available to accompany me. We chose to do the round trip on Gray Rock in the Poudre Canyon. I had hiked most of the route once before, but we ran out of time and were not able to summit. Yesterday, I finally got to scale the big rock and was rewarded with beautiful vernal pools and a rainbow that appeared below us. This hike allowed me to let go of the stress of the semester and really get recentered. What a gift!

Photo taken at 25 mph

Today was quite an adventure. Along with my friend Dave, I participated in the metric century ride (61 miles) of the Ram Cycling Classic, a fundraiser for the Global Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship program of CSU's business school. We were treated to a windy, but warm and sunny outing, which was Dave's longest self-propelled journey to date. I love being with folks who are reaching new goals!

Dave was a rockstar... he crushed the ride on a steel 10-speed. His setup proves that tech is no match for.... toughness, strength, idiocy? I dunno, but it was pretty impressive to see him motor past folks on $5,000 road bikes! I had a blast for most of the ride (except for scary wind gusts from the side) and enjoyed taking pictures and hitting over 40 mph for the first time.

Dave riding motoring along the flats

The ride was followed by a couple of New Belgium beers, great pasta and live bluegrass from a band I really like. The afternoon wrapped up with a quick trip to the hot tub and a stop at the cookie store.