Blogging not blogging.

I'm blogging only to say I'm not blogging. Say that a few times fast. For the sake of keeping memories straight and all that jazz, this week has been pretty mundane and time is beginning to speed up a bit. It proves my theory that when everything is new, time moves more slowly, but when days begin to repeat themselves, time just gallops away if one allows it to do so.

I spent a couple of hours riding after class Monday, successfully avoiding the rain. Yesterday I was so tired, riding wasn't a wise idea...and when the sky opened up and dumped buckets on unsuspecting pedestrians, I was really, really glad to not be out there.

Today I met up with a bike riding friend I met last summer while riding through this area. The forecast was for rain all day long, but I wasn't going to cancel on a ride if it wasn't actually raining, but it really took a lot of will to dress and step out the door. Turns out the sun came out from its hiding place (huh? how'd that happen???) and the day was perfect for getting good, solid miles on the legs. I returned home the very moment the thunder and rain hit. Very nice.

As far as the Gran Fondo of Gran Fondos this coming weekend (208 km, on the Adriatic Sea, somewhere around 9,000 feet of climbing), I'm as ready as I can be for a race that will be longer and will have more climbing than my longest bike ride ever. And I've done a lot of epic rides in my life. Gulp. There will also be a huge field of women racers, including pros. I've done the math, the winning time from last year involves incredible speeds and around 6 1/4 hrs in the saddle. I can only hope/dream to finish around the 7 1/4-hour mark. 

After class (that was a bit shorter than usual), my classmates and I got together for reading Italian practice. That was a fun activity, we're going to try to do that a bit more often. I've been reading out-loud to myself, to enable better pronunciation. I'm getting more self-conscious, so am actually having a slightly more difficult time practicing on others. I don't know how fast I'm supposed to be learning this language, nor do they. I know how I sound. I can translate my very elementary Italian to English...it aint pretty.

So much for not blogging! I do (unfortunately) need to curtail the blogging somewhat so I'm going to apologize now for days when nothing gets posted. Know that I'm thinking about you and will try to get the interesting news up here. Otherwise, when I have a chance, I've been posting a bit more (really short things) on Facebook...it just saves soooo much time. (In case you've never blogged, and I'm one of those English-language perfectionists so a bit slower, each complete post with pictures can take upwards of 2 hours.) Basta (enough).

Happy weekend to all and I'll see you here Monday with a full report from the weekend. Ciao, ci vediamo!