girlsinjerseys

 VetGirl and I have been biking for about a month now and we've learned many things in our adventures...

• There are good drivers and there are bad drivers and there are drivers who are just not awake at 5:30 a.m.
• Watching your muscles develop can be strangely addictive.
• Carbs are gold.
• Spandex can make you look powerful.
• Clipless pedals are efficient... until you forget to unclip.
• Riding at 5:30 a.m. always sounds like a good idea the night before.
• Hills are good for you.
• It's exhilarating to watch pro cycling and think, "That's my sport!"
• There's always more stuff to buy.
• GIRLS ROCK!

I went out this morning with the intent of doing a looooooooonnnnggg solo ride. 

Intent.

But faced with crossing, and then biking along, a major four-lane highway, I elected to take the opportunity to explore my surrounding neighborhoods, zipping up and down hills while trying to build a bit of endurance.  It's a beautiful day, I was loaded with water and sunscreen and all kinds of equipment and I felt fully prepared to do an hour ride.

Until the nail found me.

And then I realized that in all the stuff and goodies and preparation I carried with me, I had neither a patch kit nor a spare tube.

There's a moment, when you get your first "nail-in-the-tire" experience (this was mine), that you think, "Oh, come on."  Compound that with the fact that I was biking alone, have very little experience changing a tire, and didn't have the necessary parts and pieces with me and you have the last hour of my morning.

So, my planned hour ride turned into a beautiful 20 minute ride and a somewhat, less-pleasant 20 minute walk back to the house. 

Dragging my limping steed with me.

When we met up at 5:30 the other morning, VetGirl and I looked at one another and said, at nearly the same instant, “This is far too early to be doing this.”

I am not a morning person.  140 collective pounds of panting, hungry, need-to-go-outside dog makes me a morning person, but it’s not really a voluntary choice.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen 5:00 a.m. with any regularity.

But we climbed on our rides and pedaled away and performed a bit better Wednesday than we did Monday and felt like we had accomplished something wonderful merely by being up before the majority of our neighbors and getting to see the sun rise.

I was not so ambitious this morning.

You see, VetGirl and I ride (for the moment) thirty minutes every other morning (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) and plan longer rides at least once over the weekend.  It’s a low threshold upon which we can continue to build both time and distance as we continue with our training.

On the days when I don’t meet up with VetGirl at the crack of dawn, it is my intent to spin on the trainer for thirty minutes and do some core exercises – something to brace my body for the time that I’m in the saddle.

Note, the key word is intent.  This morning, having gone to bed after midnight and realized that post-midnight bedtimes (along with large quantities of alcohol, vats of nachos, and thunderstorms) are not conducive to a productive mindset when the sun is barely peeking over the horizon.

So the bike came off the trainer and I declared today to be rest day (which means Sunday, my planned day of rest, becomes another workout day).

I realize now why I was never (and am not now) a jock.

Bed seems to inviting at 5:00 in the morning.