Can you believe this weather? What a beautiful weekend we had. I thought it was a crime to be indoors on Sunday. As soon as the kids ate breakfast, I scooted them out the door.
I had some chores I needed to get done inside before I could play with the kids. I glanced out the window every few minutes to check on them. About my third glance they had disappeared. Hmmmm. Fourth glance, still no kids.
Thankfully, by the fifth glance they materialized from behind the shed. My daughter had dragged out the bikes and fitted our 2yo son with his helmet. They were rarin' to go!
They each got in about 50 laps around the house before I was finally ready to ride (time drags on forever when you're a kid).
One of my top priorities this year is to teach my daughter to rider her bike downhill. The sooner, the better.
I announced to the kids we'd be riding down the bike path. I was met with immediate and forceful resistance from my daughter. She knew what that meant: the BIG HILL.
I can't do it! You can't make me! Noooo!!! Followed by gushes of tears.
Look, kid. You have to learn to ride down hills.
Fortunately, "the Big Hill," although while it is big, it is also gradual. We took small sections at a time. I'd ride ahead and then stand across the bike path so I could stop her if she got going out of control.
I was not surprised to turn around to see her walking her bike while throwing wild accusations at me "You just left me! You abaondoned me!"
I was 30 feet in front of her, after I explained exactly what I was doing. Sigh.
Let's try another little section of hill. You can do this, girl! I hollered back. This time she was at least ON her bike, but she was dragging both of her feet and screaming.
Okay, okay, see--you did it!
No I didn't! I was going to die!
This is the last section. You can do this. Just keep those two fingers on the brakes. You've got this!
And you know what, she did it!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
The Pain
Through an unexpected and last-minute turn of events I was able to pre-ride Barry-Roubaix course this week afterall. I was a little tense but excited, this would be only my third ride outdoors this year (I'm a fair-weather cyclist).
I have ridden the course once before, about 2.5 years ago. I remember thinking it was hilly, but I handled it. I was feeling pretty confident on the drive down.
Four of us--Matt, Jim, Jim and Myself--rolled out, cold, but ready to tackle the gravel roads ahead.
The Wall
I felt pretty good the first mile. And then we hit our first little hill. How did everyone suddenly get so far ahead of me? Why wasn't I going anywhere? I felt a bit of panic rise. I tried rationalizing away my nerves--my legs will be alright . . . they are just getting warmed up. Yup.
Nope. My legs had nothing. We'd (actually, I would, as everyone was so far ahead of me) come to the base of the hill and my brain would say "Conquer this thing, Attack! Attack!" And then I'd feel a heavy resin drain down my legs. They were resigned. On-Strike. My brain and my body were in contention, leaving me in a deep place of pain and suffering.
It was a bad, bad day.
Matt, Jim, and Jim were true gentlemen and waited for me at the turns. I wish they had not been so polite as I prefer to suffer alone. One of the things I like about Matt is he is a genuine, laid-back, nice-guy. So at every turn I would roll in and Matt would offer some sort of encouragement "you're doing great!"
If I could have spared the energy, I would have taken off my shoe and punched Matt in the teeth with my cleats.
I have very violent thoughts when I am completely depleted of nutrients.
To make things worse, the course was muddy, sticky, and hillier than I remembered. And I was way, way off my anticipated pace for race day.
As ready as I am to sell my entry to some other sucker, I know that I need to see this race through. Barry-Roubaix is the first stepping-stone in my training for Lumberjack 100. No matter how humiliated I may be by my results and performance at BRX, I will keep my eyes focused on the big picture.
Happy weekend everyone!
I have ridden the course once before, about 2.5 years ago. I remember thinking it was hilly, but I handled it. I was feeling pretty confident on the drive down.
Four of us--Matt, Jim, Jim and Myself--rolled out, cold, but ready to tackle the gravel roads ahead.
The Wall
I felt pretty good the first mile. And then we hit our first little hill. How did everyone suddenly get so far ahead of me? Why wasn't I going anywhere? I felt a bit of panic rise. I tried rationalizing away my nerves--my legs will be alright . . . they are just getting warmed up. Yup.
Nope. My legs had nothing. We'd (actually, I would, as everyone was so far ahead of me) come to the base of the hill and my brain would say "Conquer this thing, Attack! Attack!" And then I'd feel a heavy resin drain down my legs. They were resigned. On-Strike. My brain and my body were in contention, leaving me in a deep place of pain and suffering.
It was a bad, bad day.
Matt, Jim, and Jim were true gentlemen and waited for me at the turns. I wish they had not been so polite as I prefer to suffer alone. One of the things I like about Matt is he is a genuine, laid-back, nice-guy. So at every turn I would roll in and Matt would offer some sort of encouragement "you're doing great!"
If I could have spared the energy, I would have taken off my shoe and punched Matt in the teeth with my cleats.
I have very violent thoughts when I am completely depleted of nutrients.
To make things worse, the course was muddy, sticky, and hillier than I remembered. And I was way, way off my anticipated pace for race day.
As ready as I am to sell my entry to some other sucker, I know that I need to see this race through. Barry-Roubaix is the first stepping-stone in my training for Lumberjack 100. No matter how humiliated I may be by my results and performance at BRX, I will keep my eyes focused on the big picture.
Happy weekend everyone!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
2.5 weeks to BRX
The dwindling calendar coupled with a successful Mountain Bike Registration Week (Iceman AND Lumberjack 100) has me eager to get my wheels spinning!
. . . . And then lil' Bear got sick. Late nights, sleepless nights, doctor appointments, missed work, etc. Training is the bottom of the list. I was hoping to get in a pre-ride of the BRX course later this week, but that is now not going to be possible. Heh, pre-riding the course is over-rated.
Bear stayed home one more day yesterday. From the start it was apparent that he was well on his way to wellness. Which meant he would not want to snuggle the day away. Nope, he'd want to play Firefighter, Monster, or Trucks. That's alright. I had a plan.
Oh yes, we played trucks. And monsters. And firefighters. And then we played them some more. I was going to play circles around this kid until he played himself out. Then I fed him a nice carbo-loaded lunch. And while he ate, I set the final stages of my plan: I hung knock-out drapes, set the white-noise machine, got the humidifier steamed up, lined the stuffed animals and created the perfect Snuzzle Nest.
Bathroom, drink, blanket, moose, hug, kiss, prayers . . . and then I tiptoed to the door and gently closed it . . . "mom! Lamby! I need my lamby!" Arghhhhhhh. Lamby, where the heck is his stuffed lamb? These kids have way too many and care way too much about their stuffed animals. Thankfully I found lamby pretty quickly, riding one of the dump trucks in the play room. Another hug, another kiss and I was out that door.
I whipped on my cycling gear, mounted my bike on the trainer, and started a Spinerval DVD. Because I was certain he'd be stomping down the stairs at any moment (how is it possible that a child that weighs 30 pounds sounds like a herd of elephants tromping through the house?) I pushed myself beyond my limits. If I was only going to get 5 minutes on the bike, it was going to be a dang effective 5 minutes!
Surprisingly, Bear slept and I was able to finish the entire Spinerval DVD! My legs were completely and totally wasted afterwards.
Bear ended up napping for four hours! It was such a long nap that I worried he had gotten up and walked out of the house while I was doing the spinerval workout. I finally broke down and went in his room to wake him up. That's how good of a Snuzz Nest creator I am.
Last night we had an impromptu family night. The kids wanted to go to the track to run races. My legs were not up to the challenge! Despite my greatest efforts (believe me, I tried my hardest) I could not keep up with my 6 year old daughter. She won, fair and square. I'm just hoping I can still keep up with her this summer for the 1 mile fun run circuit.
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