02 December, 2007

I love my new bike on the open road!

Now I'm praying for a dry day to get back out and ride.

The ground was already wet when I got out of bed this morning. The rain varied between hard and steady to a soft mist most of the morning. I checked the forecast, which is always wrong, and prediction was for rain all day and high of 65F. I went to the Hour by Hour and still had rain listed for each hour. I kept sticking my head out the back door checking. Somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 PM the rain had stopped, it was about 60F, but windy. I went out and did 4 neighbourhood laps (a little more than 3 miles). Wore my headband/sweatband, made sure it covered my ears. Man talk about nice! Now I'm gonna be jonesin' for a nice dry day to get out and ride!

I was really enjoying myself. I played with the gears just a little. It was definitely much better than the old bike. Gears shift so much more smoothly. The shoes and pedals make for great speed and were so much better when climbing the hill. Bastian decided to run the first lap with me, I'm surprised he did the full lap. He caught up with me again about 3/4 of the way through the 4th lap and raced me to the house.

Now, everyone has told me that I will fall. On one level I knew they were right. But, ya know, on another level I kept thinking, if I stay aware and keep focussed, I won't fall. Thought I was being so smart, before getting to the driveway I unclipped right shoe. Slowed as I hit the gutter at the drive and slowed further as I approached the garage. Oh deary me! I went down on my left side. Dummy me, should've unclipped the left shoe since that is the foot I always put down first! Boogered my left knee, but the bike is fine! Now, just like anytime a person is walking down the street and trips (not necessarily on anything), I had to look up to see if anyone was outside or driving down the street. Then I just started laughing out loud. Bastian stood there watching me. Here I am, this 49 year old woman that is trying desperately to get into some kind of shape, falling off of my bike just like I did when I was a pre-teen.

Gave myself about 20 minutes to catch my breath and then decided to do ride indoors on the trainer. Took me 15 minutes just to get setup and ready to ride. Hubby had a box fan in the garage. He blew the sawdust off of the fan with his air compressor. I got so hot so fast yesterday I knew having a fan would help keep me a little cooler. Found a tall stool to set beside the bike so I have a place for my water, stopwatch and remote controls for the big screen and surround sound. I had no preset idea of how long to ride, except was calculating if I'd ridden 3 miles outside that took at least 15 minutes. I knew I wanted to ride at minimum of a total of 30 minutes. I also wanted to make sure and ride long enough to keep my left knee from getting sore from that fall. At the end of 15 minutes, I thought, "I feel pretty good let's go 5 more". At then end of 20 I thought the same thing and went for a total of 30 inside. If I'd had more water I coulda gone longer, but decided that I shouldn't push too far too soon. I want to stay healthy and not strain, pull, damage any muscles, tendons, or ligaments. It takes to long to heal!

So happy to not be smoking. I wouldn't feel as alive or as happy if I was still a smoke. Life is good and I'm thrilled to be living it!

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