First Spring Ride!

Today is St. Patty's Day and although I got in a short "Daisy" run this morning, I'd rather write about yesterday - it was simply glorious.

First, it was incredibly warm. And after a long cold winter, the first REALLY warm day is exciting enough, but I was able to actually ride my bike, making it even BETTER.

I had a lot of school work to do so I worked hard all morning so that I could ride for 90 mins or so before picking up the kids. This is what you do when you train for endurance events and you have a job and kids...you plan ahead.

And it was hard to wait. I'm a morning runner/exerciser and to wait until the afternoon is excruciating for me. My body goes through all kinds of weird contortions when it doesn't get its usual fix.

I finally put aside the computer around 1:00 and decided to go. Biking is so much different from running because there's so much to do, esp for the first real ride of the season.

I decided to ride my old road bike (the same one I rode in the Ironman) instead of my fancy-schmancy new racing bike because my new bike was on my trainer and it doesn't have a water bottle cage and a few other things.

I hadn't ridden my road bike since the Ironman and my race number was still on the stem!  I decided to leave it there as kind of a well, badge of honor so to speak. I couldn't bring myself to take it off just yet.

Next, I needed to pump up the tires but when I tried to unscrew the valve on the stem of the thinga-ma-jig, it wouldn't budge. I tried really hard and BAM, all the green gu inside the tire exploded out of the top!  ARRRRGGGH!  The green gu is stuff we put in the tire to keep it from going flat. It works great but now I had it all over my hands and bike shoes. UGH.

What to do. I can't get the valve to open and now my tire is flat. Crap, I really want to ride today!!!  I have to pick my kids up from school by 3:30 and I want at least an hour ride. I try again and again and it won't budge. So, I do what I always do in situations like this: I call my husband.

Fortunately, I got ahold of him. He suggests taking the front tire off of his bike and putting it on mine. Great. I find his bike hanging upside down in the garage close to the wall, requiring me to reach across a stack of junk in the garage and finagle the bike off the ceiling hooks. After almost falling flat on my face, I finally get his bike down. The clock is ticking...

I quickly switch the front tires and notice that his tire is a bit low. No problem, I'm sure he doesn't have the same problem with his valve. I was right, he didn't, the valve opened up fine. BUT the gauge on our pump has fallen our, meaning that when you use the pump, all the pressure is lost and the air escapes through the opening where the gauge usually is. This means I have to hold my thumb over the hole while I pump the tire, which is really hard to do! 

So, I start pumping with one hand. The other hand is keeping gauge-opening shut but the more I pump, the harder it gets. I finally give up and decide to ride it "as is". The front tire feels pretty good but the back tire clearly needed air. The clock was ticking....

I grab my helmet, shoes, water bottles, cell phone, powerbar, bike gloves (accidentally grabbing two right hand gloves but I didn't know it until later), sunglasses, purse, jacket (just in case), keys, and then put on bike shorts and shirt....stuffed the bike in the back of the van...and took off.

I drove to my kids' school so that I could ride from there. I hate having to do that but I like riding out west of town and if I ride from my house, I have to go through 4 major stoplights just to get out of town (with a few miles in between of stop and go traffic). This way, I can end my ride at 3:30, when the kids are getting out of school.

I get to the school, park the car, get the bike out and put front tire on, put cell phone, powerbar and jacket, in my backpocket, check brakes, put bikes shoes, sunglasses, and helmet on, notice that i only have one glove that I can wear and I put that on, and FINALLY I am ready to go!

As I head out of town, I notice how different my road bike feels from my racing bike. Wow!  No wonder I had a slow bike time in Florida!  I feel spread out on this bike, like my arms are reaching too far ahead. Oh well, its a beautiful day and I'M ON MY BIKE!

I check my watch and for once in my life, I see that I have plenty of time. So, I head out to Windsor. So far the bike is riding fine. It feels pretty good, actually. Its gonna be a great day.

I end up riding fairly fast out to Windsor because I just felt really good. I love riding on O Street, with its big wide curves and lack of traffic on weekdays. I felt like I was flying along....arms in my aerobars and my body tucked in as much as possible.

I got back to Greeley by 3:00 and since I had a little extra time, I turned around and looped back to 10th street and then back to 20th street. What the heck - I had the time and i just didn't want to get off my bike!

So that was yesterday (Tuesday). Monday, I ran a moderate 5 miles from Monfort (my kids' school) after dropping them off. Felt pretty good. Nothing spectacular, just a regular weekday run. I did run up Bunny Hill however and that's always a challenge.

Today, I missed Master's swim due to a certain dog I know, who woke me up at 3:00 AM. I couldn't go back to sleep until about 4:30 and there was no way I was getting up at 5:15 to go swim. Besides, its spring break and I don't feel too compelled to follow any kind of schedule.

Tomorrow I hope to make it to the pool by 6:20 with Kurt. Better get to bed then!