Ahhh. . . spring!

Yes, I am alive. After taking several weeks off of blogging I've reemerged as the snow has melted and the sun shines on us past 7PM. It's been a pretty uneventful past few weeks filled with lots of training and some visiting with family. There were some rough weeks in there with some long trainer sessions but I generally braved the weather and got in one long ride a week. I'm fortunate to have a flexible work schedule and the warmest day of the week I'd take off and ride for 5-6 hours. I'm getting pretty excited for the upcoming season and this past weekend only fueled that fire.

Sam Schneider's dad Dave gave me a call early last week to see if I'd be interested in helping organize a weekend of riding with women racers from the Midwest. The plan was to get as many women to join in on some good riding in the Madison area. It was thrown together a little last minute but we still got a good crew to make the trip and Mother Nature even decided to cooperate with lots of sun and temps in the low 50s.

It was a really fun group and Bri and Louise even made it up from Indianapolis. Sam and CarrieAnn came over from the Milwaukee area with a few others and we also had several women from the Madison area. It was a good mix of veteran racers and those looking to gain some more experience.
I took the group west into the hills and we hit some of the toughest climbs in the area. By the time we had ascended Mounds Park Road and finally to the top of the state park I think we were all ready for a flat ride back home. Here's Jill at the park!

Bri, Louise, and Sam were throwing down on the city/county signs too so the legs were getting in a good workout! It was a great ride and Dave S. drove the sag van with Andy helping with any mechanicals - thanks so much for the help guys!
Check out the sweet new color coordinated bike!

Nearly 90 miles later we rolled back to my house and had a great dinner at a local brew pub. Saturday happened to be a milestone birthday for me as I entered a new decade :) It was awesome to spend it with so many great people and get in such a fun ride. My wonderful teammate Monique surprised me with this amazing cake that she made! Check out all the details - it's even sponsor appropriate with the "Blue" green bike and Zipp wheels.


I was so touched that she worked so hard on making the unique cake when I know she had a super busy week - thanks Mo, you rock!


Sunday we opted for a flatter route but still got in a solid 60 mile ride to New Glarus. Legs were feeling the hills from Saturday though!

Thanks to everyone who came out and rode this weekend! We'll definitely plan on doing this again and we'll try to spread the word a little better so we can get even a larger group of women together. I of course didn't take enough pictures and will see if I can get some from Dave S. and put them up in the coming days (done - thanks Dave!).

I'm going to take advantage of the 60-70 degree weather and get out for some rides the next two days but first I get to be a social studies teacher today. Thanks for checking in and hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent!