A Return to the Bike

It's been a little more than 1 week since I rode my bike. I was a naughty triathlete and skipped my bike ride last week. This week, I have 2 rides. Today - 25 miles and tomorrow - 40 miles and then a 3 mile run. At first, I thought I was not going to get the 25 miles done, but not for lack of trying.

My back was tight as could be this morning and I had evil nerve pain in my right leg. So I stretched out as best I could while trying to explain to Ladybug that she could not shower with Mr. Darcy because she was a girl and Mr. Darcy is a boy. Angelfish got the concept, but Ladybug was insistent. I somehow ended up distracting Ladybug with a discussion of her clothes for the day during which she informed me "I am 3 years old now. I can be in charge." Having to explain that Mommy and Daddy are in charge because we have more experience didn't work, until I told her that Mommy is 33 years old and that is 30 years older than Ladybug and Angelfish and that when Ladybug is in her 30's she can make all the decisions she likes, but that today she needed to listen to me because Mommy has reasons behind everything she tells her to do. Today the reason is that she needs to get dressed because Daddy has a deadline at work and he has to get there on time. Amazingly, it worked.

As the girls were fighting over backpacks and such this morning, I exited for my bike ride after attempting to get kisses and hugs (to no avail). It was later than I intended to leave, but luckily for me people seem to be vacationing this week - perhaps taking advantage of the 3 day weekend so they only have to use 4 days of vacation time instead of 5. So, my life was not quite as endangered as usual on my way out of the subdivision to the closed road. As I started out, my legs were both complaining - super tight quads with nerve pain. The culprit is decidedly my back. The first 5 miles were excrutiating and somewhat slow. It didn't help that I had a pretty strong headwind either. You know it's bad when you're excited that 5 miles have passed and that means you "only" have 20 to go. But eventually, things loosened up a bit... and oddly getting into aero helped. I think it actually stretches out my lower back a little. Of course, I may end up stiff as ever later (must remember to do stretches).

The road less traveled - Closed Road Heaven!

But the ride, despite the headwind, was a good one. On the up hill side of the loop, I was able to get to 17.8 mph and stay there a bit. And on the down hill side of the loop, I got up to 21.8 and kept that going for about 2 minutes, but ranged around 18.8 to 21.8 most of the 2nd side of the loop. I was one happy girl!

Transformers, more than meets the eye...

The wild life was out in full force today too. And I had my camera... but most of it I missed because they were too fast for me or I was going too fast to stop and take a picture. Here are a few shots I did take, but it was overcast so they didn't turn out that great.

Cranes of some sort, having breakfast

Some things I didn't catch on camera:

• two young deer running along side the road as though they were racing each other. They were going pretty fast - I was going about 17.9 mph at that point and they passed me.
• a brown and white cow that was wandering around in grass that was up to her shoulders and following a yellow moth like butterfly.
• a white crane standing on one leg in the middle of a lake.
• another brown cow walking around a meadow.

Pretty awesome! The deer racing each other was my favorite though.

As for the ride, once things loosened up it was great. I finished off the 25 miles in the neighborhood and was going about 18 mph even though I wasn't in aero. So that was awesome. What was not so "awesome" was that my right leg did not want to unclip (thanks to some mud I picked up while entering and exiting the closed road area) when I was stopping (luckily in my driveway). I always unclip my right leg first. When it wasn't working, I unclipped my left leg and as I went to put it down realized that the bike was going much to slowly (i.e. it pretty much was stopped) and, you guessed it - I fell over. Luckily, my left leg unclipped on the way down but I scraped up my elbow and left leg... and let out a rather loud curse beginning with the letter F. I was just so glad that the Ladybug and Angelfish were not home to hear it. It is definitely one of those words you do NOT want them repeating. And it's one that I very rarely use. I just hope the neighbors kids didn't hear it. Kind of embarrasing to fall and to poison the minds of young children all at once. Bad TriMommy.

But on the bright side of things, I did my 25 miles in less time than it took me to do in my May Olympic triathlon!

Plus, last night the girls and I had a "Girls' Night." They wanted to know if Mr. Darcy was going to be coming home so we could be all together and I had to tell them that Mr. Darcy was going to be working very late because of his deadline. Their little faces were so sad that I wanted to make them feel better. So, I told them that it was okay that Mr. Darcy wouldn't be home because we were going to have a "Girls' Night" and Mr. Darcy was a boy so he couldn't be there with us. They got pretty excited about the idea so we got a pizza, had some ice cream and watched "Sleeping Beauty." After "Sleeping Beauty" and a million "why" questions about everything that happened in the movie, the girls took a bath and got to pretend to be mermaids. Then we turned on this cute lady bug that their Uncle and Aunt gave them for their birthday. It puts some constellations up in the room along with other "stars" and acts as a night light. We sang a few songs and then it was bedtime. It was pretty fun, but let me tell you all those "why" questions can get frustrating. At one point, I pulled what my Dad used to say to me "because I said so." It was after I had tried turning the question around on Angelfish and she said, "I don't know Mommy, I asked you." I also had the joy of trying to explain how potholes are formed to them too. They're really smart 3 year olds, but I'm not quite sure they got it... especially when they touched the pothole and said "but it's not cold or hot, Mommy." But I tried. I'm not one who believes you shouldn't explain things as much as possible because the child is "too young to understand." I might not go into all the details like using the words expansion and contraction, but I do explain. It makes me batty when people say "just make something up, they wouldn't get it anyway." My kids get more than I ever expected they would at such a young age.... like Angelfish bringing me "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein, which is a book that used to be mine as a child. We hadn't read the book in literally 2 1/2 months, and she brought it to me and asked me to read it. I told her I would and she responded, "Do you like this book?" I said, "Yes." And she remembered and said, "But not Daddy. He not like this book and thinks writer looks mean." (There used to be a jacket on the book with Shel Silverstein's picture and he's not smiling. Mr. Darcy thinks he looks mean for a children's author and said so the last time we read the book.) Uh, yeah. Kids get lots of stuff. Anyway, that's my soapbox story of the day.

To sum it all up, my ride was good and animal filled; I had a fun "Girls' Night" with the little ladies (and am looking forward to Mr. Darcy's deadline being over - as is Mr. Darcy); and kids are wicked smart! Now to conquer the work day and my doctor's appointment about my blood pressure...

Tommorow I have off from work as it is the 4th of July Weekend, and I have a 40 mile bike and 3 mile run. If I don't get a chance to blog again until Monday, Happy Independence Day!!! Enjoy your cookouts and your fireworks!!