Okay, enough of the guilt trip. I didn't race this weekend. I admit it. As Webster put it, "Sometimes life just intervenes." In my defense, it wasn't just that the 3/4 race was at the unGodly hour of 8:00AM. I did wake up around 5:30AM because, as Aaron and I discovered that night, our heaters are really stinking loud. Rather than wasting a perfectly good morning, I got some work done for my classroom. Then, come noontime, we headed east to Veteran's Park. Sort of. Actually, we headed east, south, north, south, then west to Veteran's Park. It turns out that the directions were a little bit sketchy. The bright side, though, was that we were able to scout out a few post-race Mexican restaurants. Plus punkt.

Also in my defense, I emailed Adam Myerson this morning, and he and I are working out some coaching options through Cycle-smart so that next year, I can come out a lot stronger than this first year. I think that with my coming schedule changes, I will have more time for all of this cycling mess (and maybe more for this Mary mess).

I do want to say that I was very proud of AMH on Sunday. That was the best that I've seen him ride. He was nails through the sloppy stuff, and never slowed down through the barriers through the full 60 minutes. I only wish I could have seen more! I, being the stellar girl that I am, spent the full 60 minutes bundled up in a t-shirt, sweatshirt, Millet Sky WDS softshell (Thanks, Todd!), and a big ol' Carhart while standing in the pit with one other lone race supporter, just in case Aaron needed Kermit on the fly. 55 minutes into it, I was really thinking that Aaron might pull in for a bike switch just to humor me... after all, there were 25mph winds... But, he'd put close to a 15 second gap on the guy behind him, so I figured his race was probably a higher priority than my selfish wants.

I almost forgot! Welcome back, Niki! I am hoping to see a whole lot more of you ASAP!

P.S. Rob, if you're tuned in, I have a new project idea... it's going to be SWEET, and it will use some quality materials from three of our greatest sponsors... get stoked!