I'd like to start off by saying that I've fallen in love with Sonoma County. Every time I go outside I'm amazed by the beauty of the landscape. The sunset last night was stellar!

Where to begin...

I've been living and working at the OATC in Sebastopol California for just over a week now. My time here so far has been a blast. When I discovered OrganicAthlete a year and seven months ago I never would have guessed that I would end up here, let alone doing the naked pumpkin head run in the streets of Sebastopol. I would like to post weekly about my thoughts, training, life at the OATC, and my experiences here in California. My blogging experience is limited, but I'll get the hang of it. Please bear with me.

So I went out to Caleb Pike tonight in hopes of getting at least a few VCL
points. Unfortunately I was the only one out there in green which is too bad
because it was a nice night for racing and was really looking forward to
some teamwork. Despite taking over a week off due to a little mishap
involving a ladder, a cement floor, and my right leg I was feeling
surprisingly strong on a short test ride the other day and quite fresh on
the way out to Caleb Pike. The warmup was fairly hard with increasing
intensity, as I'm learning this is the key to me feeling strong during the
race.

I arrived at the beautiful and historic Royal Roads University early, well slept and carbed up.

Decked out in OA green from head to toe. After a 15 min warmup my persistent old ankle injury was really bothering me and I was noticing a slight twinge of pain going down along the outside of my foot. I had Cara Obee kindly tape it up for a small donation to Doctors Without Borders. It felt quite stable after but I still had
my concerns. Nearly 12k of climbs and descents lay ahead.