Erin and Me 22 miles!

This week (Saturday) it was Erin and me riding the beginner ride! She’s a good coach and she was motivated by the promise of a girls’ night when I got home on Friday night. By the time I’d dropped Nathan off and picked up the Chinese, Erin had prepped both my bike and hers and packed her bag. We ate dinner and watched “The Notebook” and went to bed pretty early (especially for a girls’ night!).
We hit the road in plenty of time. We were dressed for pretty cool temps. Both of us had three layers of tops and our leggings. She advised me to wear my full fingered gloves on TOP of my riding gloves (the opposite of what Stephen recommends…hmmmm, the mutiny continues) so that I could take them off more easily if I got too warm.
Once again, the wind was with us on the way out. I need to start paying attention to the basic earth science fact that if the wind is blowing from the south when we’re headed north, IT doesn’t turn around with us at the rest stop! So, we tootled north from Brookshire, TX to Monaville, TX. The best part was coasting down some long twisty hills. We think that we may have passed the farm where we got our Bailey dog three years ago. It looked familiar – but I’m famous for not knowing where I am in space, so it’s entirely possible we were 40 miles away from where I thought we were – or right exactly where I thought we were – it’s anybody’s guess.
At the rest stop (11 miles out), we stopped, drank some water and ate some PowerBar (I will eventually get used to that flavor). Then we started peeling off layers. I took off one of my shirts and Erin took off her jacket. We both took off our full-fingered gloves…and then we headed back into the wind. Good heavens – I never knew there was so much wind in Texas!
The trip back was pretty tough. Remember those long twisty hills? They were going the other way on the way back (I know, earth science). And the wind. I swear that once, just as I started up a hill, the wind slapped me in the face. I made it to the top of the hill, but my knees were killing me when I did! Definitely need to work on the hill management part of this whole training gig.
But, in the end, we logged 22 miles on the bikes. We were tired and a bit wind-burned. Erin had a date to get ready for and I had laundry to do and groceries to buy. So…we headed back home. I dragged for a good part of the day, actually. But everything got accomplished. I even had enough energy left over on Sunday to clean up the front yard. We got new trees to replace the ones that Ike destroyed and the rest of the yard looked awful in comparison to the nice trees and mulch, etc.