10 Things I Think I Think ...

With apologies to Peter King for stealing the tag line, here are Ten Things I Think I Think after a weekend of training hard and then relaxing the rest of the time away ...

1) I think ... Cypress Mountain is a bloody big hill. Especially once you've come all the way down and you've told yourself that you have to ride back up to the first lookout again!

2) I think ... I must be hard on water bottle cages. I can't understand quite why, but I keep breaking the cages off the X-Wing behind my seat. At least this time I didn't lose the bottle with it.

3) I think ... climbing up a mountain - hot. Riding down - cold. I should really try just carrying up things like arm warmers for the ride down.

4) I think ... new shoes mean that the footpod for my Polar is calibrated wrong. I thought I was working awfully hard for 5:35/km pace. Turns out I actually averaged about 5:15.

5) I think ... new shoes apparently mean a huge blister on my baby toe. But they didn't do any damage to my nast second toe, so I guess it's a tradeoff.

6) I think ... I am a giant suck. I just had to have Amy drain my blister because I couldn't face doing it myself.

7) I think ... while the pace is a little faster on my own, four hour rides without Amy are WAY less fun than when we get to go out together. I missed her today.

8) I think ... a good bottle of wine (or two) at the end of a tough training weekend is simply beautiful!

9) I think ... I loved watching Detroit lay a beat down on Pittsburgh last night. I sure hope they can squeek out one more win, because it's sure not going to come as easy in the next game or two.

10) I think ... with just two weeks to go and the majority of the work done, I think I'm ready for the race. There's a huge difference in my mindset this year going into the half iron distance. I finally feel like I can try to race it, and I'm excited to give it a go!