WHACHA BEEN UP TO?

Let's just get straight to it...here's where I've been:

After Cascade, my full attention turned to Road Nationals in Irving, CA... WAY back in August! It was a nice week in SoCal and I was happy with 2 good results: 7th and 7th! My place was the same in the road race and the time trial...Aaron's did quite well with Meredith also placing 4th, Kat 5th in the TT and Kat was also 4th in the RR. Good week :) Completion of Road nats = no more climbing for the season :( sad...

Upon my return from Cali, my teammate Alison came for a visit in sunny SoFLA! Yeah- I was so excited to have her stay with us and we had lots of fun! We rode tons (and she even said the riding is a lot better than she expected!) and did some of the ususal "Florida" stuff. Here we are at the Palm Beach inlet on an easy ride:AAAANNNND...I showed Alison the Sanders way to clean your bike- Leaf blower is KEY!

Alison did have to go home at the end of the week but we did our best to cram as much fun and many many miles (and a little sprint training!) into the seven days she was here. Good times :)

Later in September and
AFTER SIX ATTEMPTS

I finally purchased an iPhone...YEAH!!!

While researching what is sure to be the "IT"
fashions for fall, I came across a new haircut for
myself...and a new hairdresser. This is Jill and
she ROCKS! I love my new haircut with BANGS and Jill is definately the hairdresser for me..................

And theeeeen...my Dad got sick :( he had a successful back surgery followed by a blood clot in his leg that traveled into his lungs which required him to stay still and in bed which caused pneumonia. It was terrible and I wanted so much for him to get better...it seemed like at every turn, it was something else for him. All in all, after 4 weeks, 5 trips to the ER, 3 multi-day hospital stays and WAY too many pokes with needles, he DID get better! I spent as much time keeping him company as I could and doing my best to help. My Mom was trying to work though she spent tons of time at the hospital so mostly my job was going by their house to take Pearl out; dog walking is a job I can handle. Here's Pearl, the Diva of all Dogs....................................................



So one of the popular topics between me and my Dad during this time was...shocking...ME! Really, what team I would ride for in 2009...after enough discussion to make a person crazy, I signed with ValueAct Capital! I'm really excited to join Director Sportif Lisa Hunt and the girls for the 2009 season!!! I can't wait for training camp to start getting to know my new teammates and staff...the friendships and the experiences with teammates are starting to become more and more important part of my cycling career. NEWSFLASH: Rumor has it that there might be some PINK on the horizon as well...more to come on that!

And lastly, I started YOGA...yes yoga. Honeybunny thought it might be good for me...for my body and my head. I'm good at some of the positions, others, not so good. They say it's not a competition and I shouldn't worry about "how good I am"...yeah right, we'll see about that! The hardest part is the mind-clearing part. The teacher says "acknowledge any thought and let it go," and all I can think is "this is gonna be great for bike racing!" So I've got a lot of work to do on the yoga front but I really like bending my body around like a pretzel!

Thanks for reading...its been fun...more to come...