Ten Things I learned While Taking the Day "Off"

1. Offering fruit, eggs or yogurt to 19-year-old girls for breakfast results in blank stares.

2. Watching 3 19-year old girls get out of the house for a day at the beach can be very amusing.

3. A “day at the beach” for 19-year-old girls means leaving the house at noon.

4. 19-year-old girls don’t know how much sunscreen they’ll need for a day at the beach. But, they’re pretty sure they’ll need a 12 pack of soda.

5. It really is possible to just lose an entire day to inertia.

6. Despite lying on the couch and turning the pages, whatever Nathan’s doing with “Invisible Man” he is absolutely NOT reading it.

7. No matter how loudly he plays it or how wildly he dances to it, Nathan’s “music” still sounds like The Swedish Chef at 78 rpm.

8. Nathan had tortellini for breakfast.

9. We really have nothing sweet in the pantry.

10. Cereal doesn’t count as something sweet.

Last C-P ride of the season!

Today was the last ride of the Conoco-Phillips training series. Last year, we drove all the way out to New Ulm and turned around and came back home because it was raining. This year, we rode…and while it wasn’t exactly pretty, we did it.

It started at 4:15AM when Stephen’s alarm went off. Our goal was to be out the door by 5:15AM. Eventually, we lined up and took off up the first of many, many hills around 7:45AM. This ride was billed as having three of the four toughest hills in the area on the route and the one that wasn’t on the route was near enough that you could CHOOSE to ride it. Of course, those three hills mentioned were only the tough ones. There were a couple dozen less challenging hills intermingled amongst the three tough ones!

We’d had all the bikes inspected this week. Nathan’s outgrown his bike, so we decided to not have some specific repairs done to it on Tuesday, and planned instead to perhaps have a new one that fit him by the weekend. We did not, in fact, find one to buy, so we made an adjustment to his seat post and he rode his little bike today. This may not, in retrospect, have been the best plan.

The shop replaced my chain and Stephen’s chain and re-taped my handlebars, as well. I’ve been working all season on my cadence, and I’ve finally got it down. I know what gear I need to be to cruise and I know what gear I need to be when I’m climbing or heading into the wind. I’ve become a much more efficient rider – and in the past few weeks, I’ve accomplished some personal bests in speed.

But, the first four times I tried to shift into my “granny gear” to take on a hill today, my chain slipped off the sprocket. (Did I mention that there were three, really tough hills on this ride??) I developed a pretty efficient albeit greasy method of re-sitting the chain and I limped the bike into the first rest stop where the Sun and Ski crew made some adjustments to it. Shortly after that, I shifted successfully to begin climbing another hill only to hear Nathan’s chain drop off its sprocket ahead of me. Remember those repairs we’d turned down? – one was that he needed his chain and his cassette replaced. Now, his chain was wedged between the bike frame and the derailleur. Stephen and I fiddled with it and looked at it carefully – only to realize that Nathan’s chain would probably never again ride that full cassette…and certainly not for the rest of this particular day. So, that left Nathan with 7 of his usual 10 gears…and none of his easy ones. Good thing he’s young.

So, it took us 4 hours to go from start to finish. Our average speed was abysmal. But! All three of us made it up every one of those hills with our feet on the pedals, not on the pavement! We ended the day with a barbeque chicken lunch at the VFD park in New Ulm. When I got off the bike at noon, I swore I’d never do this ride again. But, the afternoon has mellowed my mood enough to want to conquer it next year!

Bluebonnet Express

Willow and I rode the Bluebonnet Express this weekend. The only thing that wasn’t fabulous about it was the hideous t-shirt!

We arrived at around 7 for an 8AM start…and started riding about 8:40. There were more riders than I remembered from last year – but the crowds thinned out pretty quickly after the start. The wildflowers were beautiful -- although some other riders mentioned that the pollen count made the ride pretty difficult for them!

We completed about 55 miles with a very respectable 14.2mph average. There were about 6 miles during which the two of us had 6 bikes drafting off us – which made us feel strong and powerful. We wore our UH jerseys and got a lot of “Go Coogs!” cheers from people around us. We also saw two Sesame Street jerseys (one with Bert and Ernie and the other with Super Grover) that we’re going to have to try to find in the next couple weeks!

We’re both feeling almost ready for the big ride in a few weeks. Willow has a ride near her home in Austin that offers her some nicely challenging hill training. I’ll keep up with my speed rides on Tuesday nights and my distance rides on Thursdays and Saturdays to keep me going. Our ride this weekend is pretty tough – I fell going up a big hill on this one last year – but I’m ready to do it!

The Frisco ride is in just a few weeks!!

Things I learned by riding at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, March 22, 2011

1. Riding your bike during “found” time is really fun!

2. Navigating through elementary school dismissal is not quite the same as navigating through elementary school arrival!

3. If you start going up the hill too fast and you get scared on the curve and brake – the remainder of the hill doesn’t just evaporate.

4. When passing other cyclists (at 3:30 in the afternoon on a workday) you may find that they have as big a grin on their faces as you do – or they may just avoid eye contact and look guilty.

5. Wind is wind. You aren’t allowed to pooh-pooh my average (14.2) because half of it was with the wind – the OTHER half was against the wind!

6. Checking your messages at the half-way point is sometimes wise. If I’d known that Nathan’s pick up time got moved back a ½ hour, I might have enjoyed the last 20 minutes a bit more.

7. Threatening to arrive all sweaty and disgusting to pick up your son is NOT wise, however.

Spring Breakaway!

So, this year I’ve gotten back into my Thursday morning solo rides. When I first did these, Erin was still home. She used to take Nathan off to school and I could leave from the house and ride out and back from home. Now that we’re back having to drive Nathan around, I have been dropping him off at school and then riding from Highway 6 west to Fry Road.

I love these rides. I feel strong and powerful because I have to do the whole thing by myself. I only go about 20 miles, because it isn’t really an endurance ride. I get plenty of those on the weekends. So, I work on my speed, my cadence and my form. And I fight the wind.

I’ve ridden this ride 6 times now and on one of them, the wind was at my back for the last 3 miles. For the other five, I’ve been cranking out the miles at a snail’s pace into winds that feel like I’ve stepped back into Hurricane Ike (I hyperbolize).

Today, since it’s spring break, Stephen and Nathan joined me. And what I gave up in peace and quiet (random bits of rap lyrics and poop jokes replaced bird song), I got back in young legs and locomotive legs!

We cruised nicely into the wind for one stretch early on. That was sort of the easy part. When I’m alone, I may struggle a little on that stretch but I’m usually still pretty fresh. Where the boys really came in handy was on the last 3 miles. We turned into the wind and Nathan took over in the lead. He dragged Stephen and me for about 2 minutes, then Stephen took over. Then Nathan took over, then, Stephen took over. I drafted comfortably in the back!

My average speed for the ride was 15.2 (over 22.4 miles!). I don’t think I’ve ever averaged that high for 20 miles before! I’ll take it – even though I can’t take all the credit for it

Speed ride number 2

Our second speed ride was cold and windy! Nathan joined us for the first time this year on our long ride on Saturday and our speed ride tonight. Stephen and Nathan took turns leading while I hung out in the back. We had a couple stretches of really fast (I got up to 18 mph!), but in the end we only averaged about 12.5 mph.

The wind was pretty strong, so I’m pretty pleased with our speed this early in the season. Although, I have to admit I’m ready for a little more temperate weather – it was 50 when we left the house and 45 when we came back an hour later. It’s supposed to drop to 28 tonight. My Thursday morning ride is also going to be kind of cold – forecast around 35.

I’m working on “form” these days, trying to ease the pressure on my hands and shoulders by using my core better. It takes concentration to break a physical habit. I have to sit WAY back on my seat and it’s so easy to slide forward and let my shoulders hold me up! Tonight, my abs are achy, which tells me I probably did it right!

We’re in the thick of training season and just this week, I’ve spoken to two people who have been affected by MS. One is a student of mine whose mom has MS. Another is a staff person at the University who happened to notice my signature included a reference to the ride in May. It really is quite amazing how many people this illness affects. It’s good to know that when we ride, we’re helping to raise funds for research into treatments and cures.

Riding on my own

So, yesterday, I rode in my first team training ride alone. I was determined to complete this ride despite Stephen being in Florida with his dad, Nathan being in San Antonio with the tennis team and Erin being in College Station being a college student. I guess it may not seem like much of a feat, if you’ve never had the pleasure of riding with Uber-sherpa Stephen.

Usually, Stephen does all the plan-ahead thinking for the rides. He checks the weather, reminds the rest of us what gear we’ll need, inspects the bikes, sends us all to bed on time, sets his alarm in the morning, loads the bikes on the car and “encourages” us to get out the door on time. This is not because the rest of us are incapable of accomplishing these tasks. We just like to play to our strengths in this family. (That’s why Nathan is the comedian and Erin makes up the rules!)

So, if you’re a student of logic (or if you have even a casual knowledge of my personality), you can surmise from the end of that paragraph that organizing these kinds of things is NOT one of my strengths. For example, it dawned on me as I was going to bed on Friday night that I didn’t know what time the ride was starting in the morning. That was kind of an important detail.

I did know it was going to be cold in the morning. I had spent a lot of time checking weather forecasts over the whole week. It was always going to be cold – but how cold depended on where you looked. So, I had planned out my layers and gear. I laid things out the night before and (after finding out what time the ride would start) went to bed.

My alarm went off at 5:45 and I hit the snooze button. As I drifted back to sleep I thought to myself: PLENTY of time!...except that no one else was going to make the coffee, load the bike, feed the dogs, etc while I was getting dressed. In a panic, I sprang up out of bed. I rushed around wondering what time we USUALLY get up to go on these rides. But then I rationalized that Stephen always got there too early anyway – we always spent a lot of time waiting at the start line. If I got there late, it would just be less standing around time.

I tore out of the driveway at 6:35, hoping to make it to Katy by 7…right. When I got there (it wasn’t 7), I signed in and returned to the car. I put air in the tires, traded my silly gloves for my riding gloves, worked my booties over my riding shoes, locked the car and went to stand in the start line….for about 15 minutes. While I stood there, I noticed a LOT of people who were much less prepared than I was. Some were in shorts (it was 28 degrees!!). Some were trying out their clipless pedals for the first time as we stood there – two even fell over for our entertainment. Then at the rest stop (22 miles later) I overheard one rider ask a ride marshal “So, is this the 12 mile marker or the 22 mile marker.” He replied, (kindly) “Depends on which route you took.” And she replied, “Well, how am I supposed to know which route I took?”

So, I did it. I have decided, however, that I’d much rather have Stephen with me for all the rides further. Now I know I can. But I don’t want to ride by myself. There was no one to talk to. No one to fuss at when he lingered at the rest stop. No one to roll his eyes with me when the yahoo in the car next to me shouted his average speed (21.4!) to his buddy (and the rest of the parking lot). No one to share a coffee with at the end of the ride. No one to drive home with (and I really didn’t want to drive – never realized how annoying that is after a ride!). And no one to commiserate with me while I tried to get out of my own way for the rest of the day.

As in many things between me and Stephen. We can carry on without the other – we just don’t like to.

Riley has never been a big fan of thunderstorms. Hurricane Ike solidified his anxiety concerning high winds and unexplained sky noises. He spent most of the night of the storm taking attendance; moving from my side of the bed, to Nathan’s pallet on the floor, to Erin’s pallet at the foot of the bed, to Stephen’s side of the bed then back to my side of the bed to start all over again. In contrast, Bailey slept quite comfortably on Nathan.

When the weather’s fine, he really, really loves to be outside – especially when it’s cool and breezy and the wind can ruffle his fur. This winter has been kind of hard on him (and, I confess, hard on me too) with his sore leg and his medicated old dog brain. When he’s inside he’s stuck on one of the rugs we’ve strewn about the house because he can’t get enough traction with only three functioning legs. But he seems to find great comfort – both physical and emotional – in lying in one of his yard divots.

But tonight, there’s a thunderstorm. And he’s anxious because he’s stuck inside AND because there’s the wind and noise thing going on. I considered giving him his of bedtime dose of Benadryl early, but then Erin sent me this photo of him and I felt guilty that he looked so dopey.

First post of 2011!

So, it’s been a while since I posted. I got distracted from training in the mid summer and then inertia kicked in. But, I’m back in the saddle again. Stephen, Nathan and I rode 26.7 miles today. We’ll be working our way back up into the 40-50 mile rides +/- hills over the next few months as we prep for our annual MS 150.

This year, the Houston-to-Austin ride takes place on the same weekend as the Texas A&M Family weekend. Since we’re still waiting for the clones to arrive, we’ve shifted our ride to the Frisco-to-Fort Worth ride two weeks later. We’ve registered for that ride and have recruited Willow to join us. Erin’s going to be in the middle of finals preparation, so she’s taking a pass on riding with us this year.

Nathan’s bike has had its final adjustment. There’s no place left for it to go. So, he needs to stop growing or he needs a new bike…we’ll see which one of those things happens first! My bike has 1295 miles on it after today’s ride. So, I’ll probably be passing the 2000-mile mark with this season!

I’ll keep you posted with each trip!