A Great Ride up the Mountain.......

While most of my home-girls from Summit Velo (cycling team) were up in Flagstaff racing this weekends' Summit Center Classic stage race, I opted to stay in Tucson and get my act together for my final on Monday! YES! THE Final! I am so excited to be finishing this class, as it will allow me to get the ball rolling on nursing school or physicians' asst school soon! (More on that another time!:)

Today started with an 0400 wake-up call, followed by me rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, making java, eating my Organic pop-tart and PB(!) and getting the gear ready for what has now become my "standard Sunday ride"- Meet Paul, Christina, and whoever else gets their holy laziness out of bed, and cruise over to Mount Lemmon for some intervals (or really, whatever you want to do) up the mountain.

Mount Lemmon is our beautiful little secret training mecca here in Tucson. It is about 9,000ft up (just ask Jen, she's gone to the top!) and is a hill climbers' dream. Some rolling parts, lots of steady steep grades and the place where you can find nearly 99% of Tucson cyclists on a Sunday morning. Not to mention, when you hit about 6,000 ft, you don't even feel like you are in the desert anymore. Pine trees, cooler temps, and the smell of fresh mountain air. Just love it!!!

While I am normally a rather "outgoing" gal, I have been rolling solo lately on workouts. Sometimes we endurance athletes do better with training buddies, and then other times its nice to step away and use workouts more for gathering your thoughts, personal time away, etc., and lately, that has been the case with me. Besides, not really having a training focus has helped (BUT NOW I NEED ONE!!) I have welcomed the change, however, and am always glad for Sunday when I get to ride with my Northwest Tucson crew.

Saw the usuals cruising up Lemmon, but this week I did NOT see Peter Reid. Yes, that's right, THE Peter Reid. Last Sunday on my descent, I could have sworn I saw a familiar tall and lanky Canadian climbing the mountain (sans helmet!!)....when I reunited with my crew, my buddy Paul (who knows NOTHING about the Tri world and EVERYTHING about cycling) said to me, "Gord Fraser was just riding up the mtn and was with this stud triathlete." Paul only understood the lure and excitement after I ran down Peter's list of IM achievements--and I hear he is now a pilot!? Interesting.

Time to refill the coffee and fuel up for an intense study session on immunity and disease. Oh the excitement(?

Have a peaceful and happy Sunday!