Hero Spotting

I really don't think that Lance's luster will ever tarnish in my eyes.  Here he is today on the course.  These pictures are from the good guys at Belgium Knee Warmers since mine didn't come out as good.  We were just as close.  The Tour (again, not Le Tour) was awesome.  It was not raining during the time we were outside for an hour and a half (despite it raining hard from 6:30am to 10:30 am).  Our timing was perfect all around.  We parked at 8am at the corner of Rtes. 35 and 84, were some of the first into Alice's restaurant for food and free wi-fi, and got a great view of the guys coming around the bent.  I wish I could have mingled with these guys, rather than just seeing them in a blur (Lance is the only one I could recognize because he was the only one with a yellow helmet).  This race has everyone who is anyone really and I love most of them...Hincapie (!), Leipheimer (!), Voigt, Horner, Sevilla, Basso, the Schlecks, Hushovd (Uff Da!), Jacques-Maynes, Freire, Vandevelde (!), Landis (?), O'Grady, Cavendish, Zabriskie, Sastre, Hamilton (?)...to name a few that have been my foci for the month of July for the past few years.  I am on cloud nine.

Today was just another great day of using the cowbell.  I love those days and I wish there were more of them.  And I had a fabulous 8 mile run: 2 miles easy, 2 x 10 minutes threshold at 8:05 pace with 2 minutes active recovery, 3 miles easy.  The last few minutes of the second threshold stint was tough, but I got through and felt great.  The only hiccup was that right at the end of the second threshold was the only hill on the course.  I walked up it...I was just spent, but I'm happily in a place where doing something like walking up a hill after a tough workout is totally okay.

Ahhh!  It's past my bedtime!