Overkill? Perhaps.

Training is still going well and I have reached the last hard week of the cycle before I spend next week resting (and praying) for the Ouachita Challenge. I'm scheduled for 13 hours this week, and even though I'm pretty tired from what has possibly already been my best two-week training period ever, I feel confident that I am going to sail through beautifully.

My pink booties seem to be drawing attention out on the roads, and when I walk by the drying rack where I air out my cycling clothes I'm starting to see a trend. Spring must be "pink season" for me, since all my heavy winter stuff is black. Soon I will shed it all for a few months of hatless, gloveless goodness.

It looks like I will have to buck the trend soon, though, because on my mountain bike ride on Sunday, I realized that my three-year-old pink Fox Incline cross country gloves are on their last legs (or thumbs). I was looking for a new pair of the same gloves, but current choices are limited to charcoal or walnut. I finally decided to go for the walnut, since it has light blue stripes that will match my new non-pink helmet, seen in this picture from the road race a couple of weeks ago.

When I got my new job, I decided to celebrate withe purchase of of a high-end helmet. I had planned on getting a pink Giro Atmos for a while, but I really didn't like the look of the latest version and in the end I decided I wanted to ugrade to an Ionos, anyway. The Ionos doesn't come in pink, so chose the light blue and white, which look pretty good with the mostly black 2008 kits (no word on when 2009 will be available).