She's Baack!

Sandy arrived home yesterday just in time for the heat wave we are having. Spokane gets hot but humidity is usually far less than here in Michigan. It sure is good to have her back but as I previously wrote, it's too bad things didn't work out where she could stay.

Greg and I had been busy around the house in preparation for her arrival. Not that the house was every that dirty but we wanted everything to be extra nice. The last few days were a little hectic as we cleaned, I finished all my ironing, refinished a piece of furniture we bought last fall, and did last minute grocery shopping on Saturday evening. And I was gone at the Stony marathon MTB race most of the day on Saturday. I think I did an extra marathon just getting everything finished after the race was over.

We succeeded in impressing her. She said she felt like a big weight was off her shoulders since she could simply relax and unwind. She was glad to be in her own home, she said there was something special about being in a place that was truly your own. She was especially surprised by the chest that Greg and I had refinished. But we may have done too good a job in cleaning, now she expects us to keep it like this all the time!

Sandy has to adjust to east coast time and will be taking some time to unpack and get settled back in. It was kind of strange for the three of us to be sitting around the table today when Greg and I had usually sat in different chairs so we could both see the TV while eating. She was out doing some grocery shopping today to get the things that us guys never have bought for ourselves. I imagine in the next week or so she will start the job hunt all over again. But at least this time it can be from home. She will miss the family out west but there is nothing to say we won't move out there, just not in the immediate future.

Saturday I raced the Stony marathon MTB race, really it is just a longer XC race than usual, about twice the normal distance. I had preridden the course last week to get a feel for what gearing I should use and approximate lap times based on my target heart rate. I felt pretty good about the race as the times I was turning were near the top based on last year's results.

The race was going to be a hot one so I didn't want to start out too fast. I kept to my target HR as much as possible and was turning laps in the time I expected. But even though I finished two minutes ahead of last year's winning time I was still almost 10 minutes behind the first place winner and only managed a fourth place. I am not sure I could have gone too much faster anyway as I started to cramp up in the legs a lot on the last lap. I just don't have the the same speed as the top guys in my class, although most of them are much younger. But it is more fun in some ways since I have the extra challenge of competing against younger riders and also seeing how I would have compared against the geared riders of my age.

I don't plan on any more MTB races until August since in a few weeks I will be traveling out west to visit the kids. I also am competing in the Senior Olympic road races in two weeks.