Monday fun

My faithful friend and Monday riding buddy, Becky, has been out of town the past week so I was left to venture out by my lonesome today! I ended up doing a mini "brick" - a quickie 3 mile run and then came home and saddled up the road bike for a hair over 27 mile ride. I certainly needed much more mileage than that after I finally finished up that nasty cinnamon roll this morning!!! Yuck! I think that will be my last cinnamon roll for a long time. The ride was all good - just did a few loop-de-loops around our area. There's not too much flat terrain around our house - lots of rolling hills with lots of steeper hills which are great for hill training! I think I ended up with about 3000 ft of elevation gain - not tons or abusive - but good enough for this long time cyclist who is trying to morph more into a trail runner! It was a gorgeous Colorado morning - sunny, bluebird skies and not baking hot like it has been the past few weeks, although it is supposed to be in the low 90's today. I am savoring the days I can be out in sleeveless and short sleeve tops - soon enough we will be back to long sleeves, jackets, and tights!!!

On a more deep and personal note (which we generally try to avoid on our public blog), these last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind blur. This past Saturday mom was officially diagnosed with a type of appendix cancer. It is very rare - literally a one in one million chance to be diagnosed with it - and very deadly. In women, it usually is initially mis- diagnosed as late stage ovarian cancer (which mom was). It is so rare that most doctors don't even know what it is when they see it. There is one treatment option and a very limited number of doctors who are trained to do the treatment. Without treatment, mom has a 2 -6 month life expectancy. With the treatment, 28 - 50% survive 5 years. Mom and dad live in Iowa. Once we know what the plan of attack is, we will be heading either out to their home or to the treatment hospital within the next few weeks. We are hopeful! Lots of positive things have happened since mom went in for her surgery last week and we know God can work in and through all things. We would love it if any of you who might happen across our little blog might offer up a prayer and positive thoughts on mom's behalf. Thanks so much for reading!

In spite of unexpected turns in the road and, at times, grim news, Steve and I always try to embrace the Hope we have. Each day we have is a GREAT DAY!!! Now get out to ride and run and have fun!!!