learning to ride

This morning was all about me.

I had a 60 mile bike ride scheduled, to be followed with a 4 mi run. This was complicated because my beloved had to catch a plane ride this afternoon to go away again (this time on business). So I had to get this ride and run in early early.

Naturally, when I went to get the bike ready to go last night, Suzy Q was sporting a flat. And of course, when I went to patch the flat I missed the puncture by just enough that my only spare tube went into the rear wheel. So I spent some valuable sleep time repairing a tire. Sigh.

I got up at the crack of dawn to get my ride and run with a pair of guys on my team who are training for IMAZ. Training with that kind of volume has made these guys really really fit. It's been a lot of fun to watch them get iron-fit (though they started out in excellent shape).

I knew I didn't have a snowball's chance of keeping up with them (this being my very 3rd time out on Suzy Q), so I sent them ahead - then I turned around early in the ride, to try and get as many miles as I could before I had to be home.

The ride out was hard. I couldn't figure out why, I figured I was just not fit. But, according to Garmin, it was all uphill - which I did not realize until I turned around and came back smokingly fast.

I love Suzy Q. I spent a lot of time aero on the way back - I'm already getting better at this. We made huge leaps today, Me and Suzy. If I could figure out how to make Garmin give me a chart, I could show the world how awesome it was (for me...at the end of the day, I averaged 15mph over 54 mi). I pushed the big chain ring all the way back.

By hour 3 of my 3.5 hr ride, I was starting to hurt - neck, shoulders, butt. Nothing felt right. I got off at the end and everything hurt.

Worried that I might be late, I decided to do a very abbreviated brick and only ran 1 mile.

...which was plenty, as I was completely trashed. That had to be the hardest 1 mi I've done in years - I felt like I weighed 400 lb. I had aspirations of going back out to do the other 3, but decided to spend my afternoon recovering instead.

We dropped off Mr. Travel, took a nap, ate some food, and then the afternoon was about The People. They haven't had much time on their bikes and the weather is outstanding, so I loaded them up and took them to the University Campus for a little ride. Me on foot, them on their bikes.

It seemed only fair - they should get their saddle time. Plus, if I'm going to win at competitive parenting, well...

They have tricycles at school, but have spent very little time on their new bikes - little pink and blue huffys with training wheels. They grow so fast. Already they've outgrown their helmets, which I bought last year. One of my People may already need a new bike, if I can't raise the saddle.

I have to say that after a hard training session like today, I'm the worst teacher possible - I have no patience for anything. A pair of 4-year-olds saying "I caaaaan't" is a setup for murder (luckily, I don't have the energy for that). To their credit, they picked it up fast. This was probably their 3rd time out on their bikes ever, and it took them about 5 minutes to understand that pedaling forward send them forward, and pedaling back meant braking. For the first 15 minutes, I had to push them forward so they could get a little momentum. Pretty quickly, they figured out how to get on top of the pedals and get their own momentum.

After about 15 minutes of me pushing, then walking, then me pushing again, they started to pick up speed - I ended up running to keep up with them.

So in the end, I got my run in.

And we all got a little better on our bikes.