A worry that wasn't...

Last night we rode, then M and I caught dinner and a late movie. I arrived home to my very dark driveway after midnight and noticed the kitchen light was on. I happened to be on the cell phone with M and said I didn't remember leaving the light on. Usually when I walk up to the house, there are cats sitting (shedding) on the back of the couch waiting for me. When I say hello and put the key in, they jump down and meet me at the door (try to run out and eat anything that moves). Last night - NO CATS! Well, I paniced and ran back to the car, jumped in and drove to the end of the driveway all in one breath. Had I been thinking straight, I would have remembered that I was working in the kitchen that morning and most likely did turn the light on, but I was feeling spooked by the dark driveway and not in the mood to think reasonably. M was able to talk me down and get me back to the door - where a cat promptly jumped up and greeted me from the window. Yep, since I was talking on the phone, they heard me before I got to the porch and were already at the door where I could no longer see them - as opposed to the prisoner of some scary house-invading, cat-stealing person. The door was locked, the cats were frisky and the house was fine - a bit messy, but it was that way when I left...

Which brings me to last Saturday - our first 50 mile bike ride. Yet another scary thing. I was pretty darn sure that there was no way I could ride 50 miles. I kept thinking of how awful I felt during our long rides for Tahoe (before I knew which foods I cannot eat and was inadvertantly eating a lot of stuff that was making me sick.) A feeling of ickiness was creaping up on me all week. The morning of the ride, I lay in bed looking for any excuse to stay there. I had to talk myself down. I had to remind myself that I was much healthier that I had been for past long rides. I had to tell myself that I would just go at my own pace, even if that was slower than the group and that I had multiple safely nets in case I needed them. And I knew that M believed I could do it (since I had asked him quite a few times the day before). Finally, I got up and arrived at the ride (last). Coach Steve reminded up that this was a ride to get in the distance, not to try for our best time, so go at a moderate pace (for me, that turns out to be 12mph). We started off, I got through the first mile or so when I am quite sure I don't want to ride, and then - guess what - I really started to enjoy myself. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, and sunny as can be. We basically rode from Birmingham to Oakland U, past Great Lakes Crossing, to the DCX Tech Center for some loops and back to our starting point. I was by myself for some of the ride and joined by Judy for some of the middle. I usually like to ride alone, but had a lot of fun meeting her and riding with her - she knew the area and kept me on track. And we had great volunteers at rest stops along the way. One took my Gorilla Munch (gluten-free cereal - yum!) with them so I would have a safe snack along the way. I did the ride (turned out to be 45.5 miles) in 3 hours and 49 minutes. One of the best parts of the ride was the final loop at DCX. Coach Steve caught up to me and asked how I was doing. He was out on the course, making sure we were ok and trying to ride with everyone for a bit. I said I felt great and he said I looked great. That my riding looked strong and that my color was even better than at Tahoe - and to not worry about speed, as that would come with training and time. The only bad part of the whole ride was the few minutes I was behind a garbage truck! PU!

Which brings me to the "what I need to learn from this" section. Stop freaking yourself out! The dreading the ride and worrying all week thing was really concerns. Had I not been a little worried about this ride, I don't think I would have been so careful about what I ate in the days before and brought the cereal along. These were smart things to do and something I should do for all long rides. the good news is I have conquered my long ride fear and am really looking forward to our 60 miles this weekend!

As far as the spooky dark driveway, we are going to install motion lights on the garage. That should do the trick!

TRAINING:

Weds, Sept 28: 80 min. Our last spin class. Boohoo! Will miss it - and watching the tennis class out the window. I named the people based on their swings.

Fri, Sept 30: 20 min skating - crosstraining and I finally got my spin centered again.

Sat, Oct 1: The big ride!

Sun, Oct 2: 1.5 hour ride at Hines, about 14.5 avs. Rode with Crissy from the Disney Tri team. Great fun and company. Good for me too - she rides a bit faster than me, so I had to keep up. Luckily she was recovering from a cold so I could hang...

Mon, Oct 2: 60 min swim and 20 min water basketball. Our little swimming team is getting better and faster. And I finally got that stupid ball in the net!

Tues, Oct 3: 1.25 hr ride at Hines, 14.5 avs (slower at end, getting dark). M and I invited the team to come ride with us. Rob took us up on the offer and met up with M. I get out of work later, so started off on my own. The plan was to meet up on our way back. I had no light so didn't want to ride in the dark and ended up beating them back by a good 20 minutes. but a fine time was had by all and we want to do some more informal group rides in the future.

FUNDRAISING:

See story above to prevent attack of worry! One plan fell through, so must figure something out soon...