Happy, Happy!

Thought I'd post since I woke up early (I rarely need an alarm clock), since I'm riding long today.

Yesterday it was a little chilly in the morning even though the high was supposed to be 70 or so, so I did some house stuff in the early morning while everyone else in my neighborhood was asleep or something. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The birds were singing, geese were honking, ducks quacking, and not much car traffic. It makes me laugh when people say they need to "get away" to experience nature. Get outside at 5 or 6AM and enjoy it!

After a bit of yard work, I checked the clock to see if I still had time to make it to the grocery store before riding--I decided I needed to start riding by 9AM in order to get in 2 hours on the bike, a :45 run and then make it to the pool between 12 and 1PM to swim :20.

I was smiling at the grocery store, because my cart clearly reflected that I'm training a lot now--Nutter Butters, Cheetos, peanut butter and cheese crackers, Gummi bears, deli salads and lots of Gatorade. Sounds like a lot of junk food, but trust me, I don't eat a lot of it on any given day. The Nutter Butters are more for Triple T (Cindy and I LOVE them) and for a race rehearsal weekend or two before IMLP. The Cheetos are for salt replacement after 2+ hour workouts (lots of those these days). The crackers are to stash in my jersey on long rides. The Gummi bears are to top off my calories at the end of the day when there is no more room in my stomach for bulk yet I need more calories. The deli salads are to ensure I get some veggies with dinner, as I won't have time to "cook" for a few weeks. And then the Gatorade--I am going through 6-7 of the 32 oz. bottles a week now.

I started my ride a bit late, but no worries. I warmed up fairly easy for about :30, and then I decided to just "ride hard" for :20 intervals, but when I got to :20, I figured I could go for :30. So I did 2 of those plus a bit more, and man, I banged out 2 full hours at 92% of threshold power! Not bad considering the first :30 was just noodling around. While I was out riding, I saw 3 people I know--Debbie, Jennifer and Craig. While they have never seen my new bike before, somehow they recognized me. I think it must be my legs or something that gives me away--I dunno. All I know is that I was smiling a lot while riding, and enjoyed every minute of it, and there were very few asshole driver moments.

As usual, I didn't know how I'd be able to run after such an intense ride, but I had no trouble at all, even though, as expected, I felt like puking most of the time. But it seems this spring there is something different about when I run off the bike--almost like the harder I ride the better I run. I guess in retrospect it was a good idea to do those stinky super sprint races over the winter.

I didn't start in time to hit the pool between 12 and 1, so I ate some lunch and went to swim at 2PM. I was pretty tired and didn't really feel like swimming, but I know that these short recovery swims are good for me, so I did it; and besides, I wanted to hit 10,000 yards for the week! After the swim, I hit the sauna to stretch for about :10, and then I headed to the bike shop to pick up Bitchie. I stopped at the running store to chat with a friend (the owner, Pat) and met a guy, Fred Faller (sp?), who's a good rider and just a nice man. We shared "bike rage" stories and talked about all who we know in common. My world gets smaller every day, but that's a great thing! Each of us knows someone who the other knows. Actually several. There was a woman buying stuff, and to me she looked 5-10 years older than me. Turns out she's younger. That gave me a boost, as even though I'm feeling my age, I guess I still don't think I look as (excuse me, here) "haggardly" as some women who do this stuff. Maybe I have good skin or something. I think there's a fine balance between leanness and muscularity, and some women are quite lean, but don't have a lot of muscle, and that doesn't make your skin look so good. So I guess if nothing else, that's where my years of strength training pay off. I work very hard to retain the muscle I have, and OK, so I'm a little vain about it, but it sure beats just being skinny!

When I got home, I fired up the grill, and then proceeded to hand dig every dandelion (I don't have too many but somehow I counted 80!) in my lawn and flower beds, then mowed the front yard, swept the garage, watered some new grass I'm trying to grow and got soaked because my hose sprayer is kaput, grilled a bunch o' meat, and finally went inside to eat and then pass out at 8PM.

I call that a very full, fun day, and I'm about to begin another one. There's bike crap all over my house, and that can mean only one thing: It's riding season, and I'm happy, happy!