Four-Day Weekend and a Three-Day Work Week....

Do I hear a "hallelujah" from the masses? I just had more days off in a row than I will work this week. That's one way to get the week started off with a smile.

I bookended my long weekend with bike rides. I rode 41 miles by myself on Friday, and today Rozmo and I rode a 56-mile route we've covered before (and part of it is on the annual Spring Tune-Up ride). It was much colder than I would like for a bicycle ride, and I pulled something in my back this morning, either of which singularly would have compelled me to call off the ride in years (days?) past. But I didn't want to let Rozmo down, I wanted to get my February mileage in, and I honestly thought the problem with my back (extreme lower back) would be helped by riding and stretching it out. Not so much.

I was getting out of the recliner this morning to go get ready when I felt a catch in my lower back. As I told Rozmo, that should have been a clear indication that getting out of the recliner was the worst thing I could do today. We stopped at a little store on our ride, and there was a picnic table in the sunshine, so I lay down on the bench. I told Rozmo, "I may never move from this spot again." The warmth of the sun felt very good, and lying flat gave my back some relief. That statement almost came true a few moments later when I realized I could NOT get up from that spot. I was finally able to haul myself up by grasping the table and sort of rolling off the bench. Not very graceful, but it worked.

The map doesn't do it justice. Ha ha ha ha ha. This is one of the prettiest areas in our state, with lots of horse farms and not much traffic. And friendly people who didn't ask us A) why we would choose to ride our bikes in chilly weather; or B) what the hell we were doing on the road in the first place.

Katydid, notice we went to Newborn...AGAIN!

Cycling: The Wimp-Out Edition....

In typical fashion here in the South, we jumped two seasons in the span of a few hours. It was summer yesterday and winter(like) today.

I watch the weather forecasts religiously, and I THINK I know what to expect. I believed the weather people when they said our high temperature today would occur this morning, with steadily dropping temperatures throughout the day. I still expected the temps to be in the upper 50's (maybe I didn't listen as carefully as I should have), so I took my bike to school.

A couple of co-workers looked at me askance (isn't THAT a cool word?) when I left for the day, and my principal said, "You're going to FREEZE!" I even went outside to see if I needed my jacket in addition to the jersey and long-sleeved t-shirt underneath.

The answer was yes, I needed my jacket. And two more just like it, ideally.

The winds were fierce, clouds hung low in the sky, and my fingers went numb fairly quickly. I got to the first decision point and stopped for a moment, pondering whether I should continue to ride. (I had asked Hubby to stay close by, just in case.) I turned on my usual path, telling myself to suck it up and finish the ride.

Then I made the next turn, straight into the wind. That's one of the longest stretches of my ride home. Isn't that the way it always goes, a headwind on the longest stretch? I rode that piece for a couple of miles, and then I said to myself, "Screw it." I stopped and called Hubby to come get me. Turns out the temperature was in the 40's, not the 50's. I said I could stand two out of the three: clouds, cold, and wind. All three together just made me angry.

The grand total of my mileage for the afternoon? 4.83 miles.

Do I feel like  a wimp because I didn't finish the ride due to a little discomfort? Yes I do.

Am I glad I wimped out? Yes I am.

So Close but So Far.....

Today Rozmo and I did a bike ride down in central Georgia that we've done a few times before. I don't get to do it every year because sometimes there is a conflict with the gymnastics schedule. This year Katydid couldn't go, so it was just Rozmo and me.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Perfect day for riding. It was a little chilly at the beginning, but it warmed up to somewhere around 71 degrees by the time it was over. I was able to wear only a short-sleeved jersey and knickers, no jacket or arm warmers, and I was fine. I got a little sunburned on my arms and face (Sweet Girl calls it my "raccoon look" where I get sun around my sunglasses).

At the first rest stop I had averaged 16.5 mph. GET OUT OF HERE! If you read my post from last Saturday, you may remember that I was thrilled with a 14.5 average. I knew the 16.5 wouldn't hold up over the whole ride, but I was hoping for 15 mph. I even used my 11:11 wish on it.

Toward the end of the ride, though, it got windy. It's nearly impossible to combat the wind on a bike. And it's always a headwind, no matter which way you turn. I was also quite tired, because I was riding HARD trying to maintain that average speed. And watching it drop like a rock. At about 6 miles from the end, I changed the display on the bike's GPS so I couldn't see the average anymore. It was making me crazy(er).

As you can see by the graphic below, I almost succeeded. I had a 14.9 average over the whole day, which isn't 15 mph or 16.5, but it's not too shabby for this (almost) 50-year-old.

My knees are sore, along with my sitting-down-place, and I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight. Particularly with the help of some pain PM tablets.

Comfort Food.....and Drink......

I came home from a very short bike ride today quite chilled. It was a very short ride, and I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I was chilled to the bone in temperatures that were in the 40's. I'm a girl from the South, and I don't do cold. Cold, by the way, is anything below 60 degrees. It was supposed to get somewhere NEAR that today, but by that time football was well under way. I am still patting myself on the back for venturing out on the bike at all, especially considering I've already met my November cycling goal. I rode 13.5 miles and made it in the door just in time for the 1:00 PM kickoff of the Atlanta Falcons game.

I was looking forward to some hot apple cider (instant, so shoot me) when I got home. As I started to boil the water, though, I saw an ingredient for a drink that I made a couple of times last winter when there was snow on the ground: butterscotch Schnapps. I got the recipe off a box of something (maybe the cider), and it also called for whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel syrup on top. Because I'm trying to be "good" and because I didn't have any whipped cream, I opted for just the butterscotch Schnapps.

Heaven in a mug. Not enough to get tipsy or anything (even after two mugs), but a delightful mid-afternoon treat. Maybe I can find a way to carry that concoction in my water bottles on my bike. Then a chilly bike ride will be a little more tolerable.

For dinner I made potato soup. The recipe was actually called "Zippy Potato Soup." I found it a little bland, even after I added cheese that the recipe did not call for. Still, it was warm and filling, and I had enough left over to freeze for later AND take some for tomorrow's lunch.

So there. I DO cook sometimes. From a real cookbook and everything. For my 50 things to do next year list, I'm going to include trying some new recipes. Probably not 50 new ones, but anything will be a start.

North Florida Tour Day 2.......

I would love to tell you that today was much better than yesterday as far as cycling goes.

I would love to, but I can't.

However, I'm also not going to go on and on whining about how MIS. ER. A. BLE. I was. ALL. DAY. LONG.

I'm just going to whine a little bit.

It was 36 degrees when we got up this morning. "It won't be so bad," I thought, "as long as the wind doesn't blow."

It did blow.

I guesstimated that yesterday's winds were around 15 mph. Today's had to be 20 mph. We did a loop ride, and I swear with my hand up that the winds were ALWAYS in our faces.

We left around 10:00. We made up our own route for the first part because the SHORT option for today was 68 miles. There was also the option of doing a century.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I would have been happy (well not HAPPY, but you know what I mean) to do around 30 miles, but I didn't want to seem like a wimp, so I said a 50-mile route would be fine with me.

We set out down Florida highway 53 to Madison, and it was an awesome route. I can't say for sure if there was a lot of traffic on that road, because there was so much pavement OUTSIDE the white line that it felt like we had our own bike lane. We stopped in Madison at a convenience store that is hands-down the neatest store I've ever been in. They had a "bee" theme for the whole store. There was a warning in the restroom that employees who didn't wash their hands would be "stung and _______" (I can't remember the second word). They had a separate little room that was the beer cooler, called the "beer hive." The lady behind the counter was super nice and even took a picture of the three of us.

We had packed sack lunches before we left this morning, and the ride organizer, Margaret, brought them to Blue Springs to a state park where there are springs and the water is ...... you guessed it, blue. I will try to post pictures in the next day or so, when I'm not dependent upon a cantankerous internet connect card. (My new definition of "roughing it": not having wifi.) We stayed at the lunch stop for over an hour because I simply could not face getting back on that bike.

The last town we went through was Pinetta, Florida, where all the street names start with "P": Petunia, Pennyroyal, Primrose, Poplar.

I try my best to remain upbeat and remind myself that no one held a gun to my head and MADE me go ride a bike in this weather, but sometimes my sour attitude wins the battle. It got so bad today that I started yelling at dogs. To the German Shepherd-looking dog that barked from his pen in his backyard, I yelled, "SHUT UP!" When a boxer-looking dog barked and charged at us from his yard, I pointed my finger at him and shouted, "YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH ME TODAY!" Later when Rozmo was riding alongside us (that didn't happen a lot today), another dog barked from the confines of a fence, and once again I yelled, "SHUT UP!" Unfortunately Rozmo neither heard nor saw the dog, and when I yelled it almost startled her off her bike.

Just as all good things must end, even the miserable ones drag themselves to a merciful death eventually. We limped back into camp around 4:20. Our total mileage for the day was 59 miles and change, and when Rozmo asked if we wanted to ride a loop around the lake to get 60, I almost took her head off. That loop around the lake was actually about 4 miles, and I'm not sure I would have survived it.

Dinner was wonderful, and the wine and music are still going at the pavilion next door to the RV. Katydid left first, then I sneaked away from the dancing, and Rozmo is still going strong. I have a sneaky suspicion the wine has a lot to do with it.

I won't say I will NEVER do this ride again, because we tend to have short memories when it comes to cycling. We always THINK we had a good time. And it has been a good time with Rozmo and Katydid, and laughing with the other folks on the ride. But I don't think I will pre-register for this ride in the future. I will wait until the Monday before it and see what the weather forecast says.

If it's going to be 80 degrees with no wind in North Florida the first weekend in November, count me there. Otherwise you will find me home with Hubby and Gus, watching football and eating nachos.

45 + 15 + 64 = 1...........

45 degrees + 15 mph winds + 64 miles = 1 miserable day on a bicycle

If we hadn't already pre-registered for this ride, I swear I wouldn't have come.

I had on way more clothes than I like to bike in, and it wasn't quite enough. I wore tights, snow ski socks, my enclosed cycling shoes that look like kayaks on my feet, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a cycling jersey, a jacket, ear warmers, a neck warmer, and two pairs of gloves.

By the end of the day I was able to shed one pair of gloves, the neck warmer, and the ear warmers.

The wind NEVER relented, and it was ALWAYS a head wind. Today's route was different from most that we have done. We usually do a loop ride, but this time it was from one town in South Georgia to another town, then back by the same route.

It may have been a blessing in disguise that the computer on the front of the tandem wasn't working. (The GPS is on the back so Katydid can keep up with our mileage too.) I had no idea how far we had gone, and I told Katydid not to tell me. Of course when we got to the turn-around point and had lunch, I knew we had 32 miles to go back. I also knew when we got to Boston (who knew there was a Boston, Georgia?) that we had 18 miles left. After leaving there and riding for a while, I had convinced myself that the church should be right around the next corner when Katydid slipped up and said, "I don't think my feet can stand another 6 miles."

I almost burst into tears.

On a positive note (because I insist there must be one somewhere), the route was very rural and we didn't have to contend with traffic much at all. 

But it was cold. And windy. And long.

I would love to post pictures, but my connect card internet keeps kicking me off. I'm too tired to fight with it.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to suck my thumb.

Stupid Weather.....

After such beautiful weather last weekend, it has been rainy and COLD here for the past two days. The high is supposed to be higher than the 50's in the South.

To make it worse, Rozmo, Katydid and I are headed out for another 3-day bicycling event tomorrow afternoon. We are headed to Florida, but the cold weather is supposed to FOLLOW US there.

Crap.

I have some cold-weather cycling gear, but not a lot because I generally avoid cold-weather cycling. Period. I have a huge duffel bag packed with stuff for this weekend, and I just keep cramming more stuff in it. The lows are supposed to be in the 30's and the highs MIGHT reach the 60's. Sixty sounds warm, but considering it doesn't get there until we are usually finished riding for the day, we might have a couple of miserable mornings. We won't freeze, since we aren't tent camping (who DOES that in November?), and the RV has a very nice furnace. But there are only so many articles of clothing one can put on to ride a bicycle. I was so worried about packing warm clothes that I nearly forgot to pack my cycling shoes. And underwear.

We haven't done this ride before, but not many people signed up for it. Around 35, I think. More may show up and register on-site, but considering the weather I doubt it. I won't be surprised if a few people just don't show up at all and say screw the $130 fee. If it's as cold as they say it's going to be, I'm sure there will be moments when I would pay ANOTHER $130 just to go home.

There is a ride over in Charleston that I've done twice, and I'd like to do it again someday. One year it was very chilly and rainy, and the rest stops on this particular route compete for the best theme, the best food, the best atmosphere. My hands-down favorite food at a rest stop that year was chicken noodle soup.

Chicken. Noodle. Soup. At a rest stop. On a bicycle ride.

I thought I had died and gone straight to heaven.

That warm soup, the salty taste, the friendly church folks serving it..... It doesn't get much better than that. I'll have to harbor thoughts of that soup when we're riding this weekend.

I wouldn't mind the weather so much if we could just count on it being one thing or the other for more than three or four days. Hubby has a fire going in the wood stove tonight, and I am absolutely positive that we will have to run the air conditioner at least once more.

And for that I won't complain a bit.

Keep working on the list of the 50 new things I need to do next year. I have LOVED some of your suggestions so far. You guys are the bestest!