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!