And now onto the good stuff.

So the cool piece of news that I didn't want to have thrown into my Miss Negativity post was that myself and my two teammates who are heading up to Mt. Hood will be guest riding for Metromint! They're also sending three girls, so we'll have a strong 6 rider squad. Unfortunately, I'll definitely be the weakest link. But I'm sure it will be an excellent learning experience, nonetheless! I'm hoping that the altitude will give me a bit of a boost. I mean, a lot of it starts at 1100 feet or so, but on the gnarly 3rd stage we get up to 5300. Even if it's just psychological, it could help. And honestly, I need all the help I can get. I'm nervous, but I'm also wicked excited. I hope I can hang in there long enough to be of use to someone.

Oh yeah, so, since I've switched jobs and now won't be able to make it to Cascades in all likelihood, I've developed a little secondary season goal. I might even add it to my list, although I'm not sure it's entirely realistic. So, over here on the Eastern slope of the Sierra we have the Sierra Nevada Hill Climb Time Trial series. It's 4 races long, and I've already missed one, but if you do 3 of them you're eligible for the overall. The races I've added to the calendar are the backside of Mt. Rose (my most loathed of all Reno-area climbs), Geiger (must redeem myself!), and Mt. Rose proper (also eligible for redemption). You get points based on coming in 1-3, and they're weighted depending on which race it is. Mt. Rose proper gets the most points. My friend Amber Broch, who's totally insanely fast this year (and last year, for that matter) won the first one, and won the Geiger TT a couple weeks ago, and beat me by two minutes. She's strong and lean and flies up hill. I don't know if I can beat her, but I'd like to try. It will be a good motivator for my climbing, and even if I don't win, I'll be happy knowing that I was bested by a friend, and a strong one at that. Anyway, winning the overall is not a terribly realistic goal, especially considering that I already missed a race, but maybe I'll make my goal a top 3 in the overall. I don't think I want to start setting time goals for the various climbs - if something goes badly and I suck then I don't want to dissolve into that blubbering whiny thing that I was after Geiger. Get a grip, Mare, fo' rizzle.

And, working on that climbing is going to be important since the Elite District road race is going to be at Challenge this year. You may recall my last attempt at this race. Not. Pretty. Gotta get the climbing legs ready!

In other good news, my neck is doing a lot better today. I still have to turn my whole upper body if I want to look at something that's off to my side, but I can sit up and move around without whimpering. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm a big wimp. But feeling uber-motivated by having such a crappy day yesterday, so I'm going to be getting off my ass and away from the glowing rectangle of my monitor and get some shizit done.

Okay, one last piece of snooze before I go. I was in the paper yesterday: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100525/LIV/5250319/1089/Pedal-power-for-Northern-Nevada-bicyclists

Apparently I'm like, an expert, or something.