2009 In Short Review

January 1, 2009, I started off the year with a mtb ride at Tsali with Andy.  This year has been pretty good in general - not what I wanted as far as riding, but I've learned that there are more important things in life than cycling 24/7.  *shrugs*  Guess that happens when you fall in love, eh? :)

I had great plans for riding this year and the first half of the year went well.  The second half not so well, as far as cycling is concerned.  I trained hard for my main ride of 2009 - Assault on Mt Mitchell - and I did really well.  Finished in 9:08hr total time (although my PT has almost an hour less) but that could have been closer to 8 hours if I had not spent so much time at the rest stops.  Oh well.  It is what it is.  Next year, rest stop time management will be one of the key things to work on.

I became a grandmother in March (3/17/2009)!  How can I be a grandmother????  I'm only 44yr old!! :)  I haven't been able to see the grandson as much as I would like to, but maybe next year I can see more of him.   From the conversations with my daughter, he is growing like a weed....he's wearing 18-24mo clothing, weighs 25 pounds (as of this week), and is pretty tall for his age (9 mo).  

I met a really nice man, from would you believe, an internet bicycling forum. :)  I met Hank in March, a week after becoming a grandma.  We talked for almost 2 months via emails & phone before finally meeting each other the day after AoMM.  Wow.  This guy is very special to me.  It's not been an easy relationship due to the fact that we are 283.7mi or a 4 hour drive/2.5-3.5 hour flight apart and has very weird days off, but we've managed so far.  Hank lives in Greenville, SC and I have spent quite a bit of time in the area.  I really like it down there - wish there were some way I could be there more often than I am.  But, I wouldn't trade any of the past 6 or 7 months of our relationship for cycling.....what does that say??  There are more important things in one's life than cycling??   Yea, there are.  I don't know where we're headed in the next year, but I'm in it for the duration.  (if you're reading this Babe...I love you). :)

I got my first cold in over 3yrs towards the end of June.  By the 2nd week of July, I was full blown bronchitis.  Meh, I said.  I can still ride with Dallas and my Hammer guys (who I had been riding with since probably around April) once or twice a week.  Right.  I picked the fast night (Tuesdays) to ride and that was about all I could do until the weekends.  I should have just taken a little time off the bike and let my lungs heal properly, but noooooooo.....I had to continue riding.  This wasn't good.  It affected the remainder of my year, for cycling.  

I managed to drag myself up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania the weekend of August 15 for the Covered Bridge Metric.  I had a great time, met some great people.  Not sure if I'll do the ride again next year, but I might, if I'm not otherwise off on some adventure. :)  (Still suffering the lingering affects of the bronchitis....)

The remainder of the year, after CBM, was spent riding with Dallas and traveling to Greenville. :)   Hank and I were able to see the US Cycling Road Race at the end of August - we were camped out at the top of Paris Mountain.  I saw George Hincapie. :)  *drool*  It was a great weekend, of course any weekend in Greenville has been great. :) 

I also spent 5 days out in the Sacramento, CA area mid October.  Met some more of my online biking friends, had lots of great rides.  Foxy's Fall Century was a great ride....next year, I will bring my own bike for the ride so that I don't suffer from such butt pain!!! /eek/  If there were somewhere in California that I thought I might be able to live in, the Sacramento area would be at the top of my list. :)


I planned on riding the fall cx races, but my lack of cycling in general really sent that idea down the drain.  Raced a couple of races, but realized I shouldn't pay registration fees/gas for just going out to have a little fun.  So, I raced, 3 or 4 races and called it good.  Modified the cx bike to a more mtb style and absolutely love the bike now.  I had thoughts of doing the Winter Cx Series, but my most recent injuries negate that.

So, we are now almost current....Broke my right thumb and have a Grade 1 AC Separation of the left shoulder due to wild cats attacking me on my way home (riding the cx bike) and causing me to crash less than 0.5mi from my house.  Those dang cats almost licked me to death! LOL.

And, here I am....making the last post for this year and thinking about what I want to do next year.....AoMM is still one of my goals for next year.   There are a few rides prior to that one I would like to do - if they mesh with my training plan for AoMM.  I have plans to do something with Hank next year - a tour.  No other info on that at this time, but I'll post up something when it's appropriate.  I want to get back to doing some day hikes or several long (a week or more maybe?) weekend hikes.  I'm really interested in hiking all or part of the Foothills Trail.  A ride of the whole BRP is on the list too.  Not sure if it will happen this year or not, but we'll see.

I'm not sure on my final yearly mileage....I sort of quit keeping track of it when I got sick and was only riding, maybe, 2x per week.  I think it might be around 3500-4000mi.  4000 miles if I'm lucky really.  Oh well.  Doesn't really matter in the larger scheme of things, now does it?

It's time to, as my good friend Martin said to me - "Enjoy the ride.  Ride for the enjoyment."