Courtenay Brown

Today was a rainy one hear at Team VAC Camp in Healdsburg! Unlike in Seattle, where it’s been 40 and rainy, it was more like 50 and rainy, so: TOTALLY trainable.

I started off with a swim at the nearby Healdsburg Swim Center, which has an outdoor 25 meter pool. (Not pictured to the left – that’s our house pool!). I had a great workout, enjoying rain on my shoulders and then gradually seeing the clouds clear and then return. I’m hoping I get at least one sunny day so I can wear one of my new Splish bikinis!

Then we had a 3 hour team ride on our schedule. Due to the weather though, riding outside became optional. Six girls stayed and did trainer workouts while the rest of us headed out for a mostly flat 2.5 hours. It was my first ride on my new Specialized Ruby (mine looks exactly like that except it has my name on it!), and man do I love it. LOVE IT! It fits perfectly and the handling is amazing. We rode parts of the Vineman 70.3 bike course today, if you have done that race you know that these are not smooth roads by any means, but my bike didn’t beat me up at all. On my old road bike, I would have gotten home with a big sore spot between my shoulder blades after all those rough roads. Not so with the Ruby. I’m in love. I am also really pleased with the Specialized saddle – I have always ridden fi’zi:k so I was worried about the new saddle, but I already can tell that I prefer it to my old saddle! I really like the sit-bone support at the back of the saddle, it makes me feel very stable and it allows me to support my body with my seat, rather than putting a lot of weight on my hands. I also really like the cutout at the front of the saddle, I’m hoping it will help solve some saddle-sore and soft-tissue issues I’ve encountered this winter. So, despite the rain, the ride was a success!

After our ride I headed out for a nice run in the rain. I wanted to bring my camera because the roads here are so beautiful – green hills with cows and twisty trees on one side, vineyards and fields of yellow flowers on the other… on the next sunny day, I promise to get some photos! The cows are sooo cute.

Then I made a Lean1 smoothie to share with everyone and it was deemed delicious. Delicious! I will have to post my recipe for everyone soon (once I figure out exactly what it is… I’m not so good at measuring!).

I missed my nap today because I just wanted to hang out with my teammates. It was worth it though, training camp is one of my favourite times of the year because it’s a solid week of fun with other dedicated and very talented women. I love Martina’s stories so much, she’s always good for a million laughs and at least one quotable phrase per day. This afternoon I heard her telling our Specialized rep that “bike fit is something I’m very passionate about.” I can attest to that . So many rides, we have stopped 4 times during the fifteen minute climb up Tunnel Road so she could move her saddle a half a millimeter and then back again… and when we got our new pedals last month, she called to suggest I move my saddle up one millimeter to compensate for the difference in stack height between the sport and carbon models! Passionate about bike fit for sure. Sharon and I always have the best time, we usually arrange it so we can be roommates. Last year we both arrived last at camp so we got the last room, and shared a queen bed, which was actually an awesome bed and we had a nice view of the vineyards. This year she said we could be roommates but please could I please not fart under the covers please. So, I just made sure we got our own beds! I scored us the cave room, no windows and two double beds and it feels like we are in a giant special tent. Kristin and Chrissy are in the room next door to us and I am enjoying getting to know K-Mac and very much enjoying the fact that Chrissy is messy like me. Kristin and Shaz are the neat-freak obsessive ones while we are the relaxed fun ones.

Shaz in our room

If you follow the hyperlinks above you will see that my teammates are very negligent bloggers. They seem to think that facebook has replaced the blog… they haven’t figured out that you do a status update on facebook, then write a blog that’s basically an extended version of your status update, then you have your facebook set so it imports the feeds from your blog and posts them on your facebook, and it’s all one big beautiful circle. Martina isn’t on facebook though so she decided to blog tonight, yay!

OK bedtime…