A lot has happened since heading off for San Luis Obispo on March 6th. Training camp was awesome, of course. I started the week with a cold which really effected my stamina. It was all I could do on Saturday to ride wheels. Some very nice teammates dragged me along the coast and back to the Peach Tree Inn for a much needed nap. Sunday was better -- no punch, but more endurance. Monday was up and down - endurance was OK, but I couldn't climb well. I bonked about halfway through the 108 mile ride, but recovered and finished feeling much better than I had any right to.

After our recovery day on Tuesday, I started riding stronger. Felt pretty craptastic at the beginning of each day's ride, but I was climbing much better and able to follow the attacks instead of watching everyone ride away. I rode up Black Mountain with Heidi and Greta and enjoyed it a lot more. It seemed like such a ridiculous thing to do last year, ride up a crumbling 7 mile access road with several 20% grades mixed into a 7-8% average. This year, it was sorta fun. Heidi used the first long 20% section to launch herself. Greta ended up having to put a foot down, so the three of us chased each other to the top.

The day we rode up the Wall, I could also see improvement over last year. I made it up faster and more easily - and later in the day did not get dropped on a series of smaller hills and flats into a headwind that had defeated me for the last three years. That alone made my week. By Saturday, I was feeling good -- just in time for a quick 30 miles before the trip home.

I had the next week off work for Spring Break, so instead of scheduling a rest week, I continued with long endurance rides. The weather was lovely and I found myself really wishing I had the youth and talent (or whatever) to quit my job and ride my bike. I had a big weekend scheduled.

But ended up flying to Philadelphia instead. My father drove the 6 hours from his home in western Pennsylvania for a conference, and ended up in the hospital with septic shock from an infection in his replaced hip. He had two surgeries in the first four days to clean out the abscesses, and had two more scheduled for Monday and Thursday of this week. My stepmother had to return to their home to prepare for an indefinite stay in Philly, so I flew out to be with Dad. Good thing, he really needed me. The infection is clearing up, but he's looking at long-term antibiotics and a complicated removal of the hip prosthesis with uncertain results.

I'm back on my bike today - ostensibly for a rest-week endurance ride. But I had tons of stress and nervous energy to burn and ended up in a paceline with my HR at 90%. Ooops. I'm planning on my first race of the season this Saturday and I'm looking forward to it. I really have no idea how I'll do in the Women's Open this year, so it will be good to start getting a feel for where I'm at and what I need to do.