Beer, Bikes and Busted Plans

{1} Why is it the week I decide to avoid sugar is the week that...I go out to dinner with my brother (which I only do about once a month), my friend's band is playing at a bar in my neighborhood, the ladies at work get together for happy hour, I am meeting a friend for a birthday dinner (two times eating out in one week!) and it's Mother's Day Brunch. When it rain's it pours, I guess.

{2} I went to see my friend's band on Wednesday and I rode my bike to the show. I am no bike expert, let me tell you. I barely know how to shift gears. Why does it always seem like every time I shift it gets harder? It never gets easier, I swear! Downshift, upshift...either way, it keeps getting harder. So I was riding the bike back home when I shifted and the chain fell off and got tangled up in the round thingy, which I googled, and found out it's called a cassette. I had to walk the rest of the way home.

{3} I was supposed to go to a music festival this weekend, but then my friend flaked out so we decided to sell our tickets and I made other plans with other people for the weekend. But then nobody wanted to buy them and I've been placing ads on Craigslist and dealing with a lot of flaky people and I am getting annoyed. This is why I don't change plans; it gets aggravating, scrambling around at the last minute trying to coordinate things, changing plans with everybody, not knowing what your actual plans will be, and losing money on top of all of it.

{4} My roommate got a dog. That's really all I have to say about that. No really, it's cute; it's a puppy; it pooped on the floor today. What else is there to say, really?

{5} I have this race tomorrow with Broski. It will be his first 30k and his longest run ever! By the way, I think he's finally come to terms with the fact that the trail "half marathons" are not always 13.1 miles.

What's going on in your life? Any fun plans for the weekend? Do you know anything about bikes?

Step Back!

Today marks the start of the 15th week of Boston training. For those of you who have followed an 18 week training schedule, you know what that means. It means that this week is the highest mileage week in the training schedule. On the schedule this week is my last 20 miler, and a total of 58 miles for the week. I have to say, I will be glad when it is over. Not that I love the taper weeks, but it will be nice to be able to go for a bike ride, or a hike or a kickboxing class, and not have to worry about it cutting into precious running time.

Speaking of a bike ride, last week was a step back week, which means that my long run was only 12 miles and the total mileage for the week was a lot lower than this upcoming week. This did give me a little bit more freedom and I ran with it (ha! no pun intended).

On Sunday, I ran a 5k for Jill's Virtual St Patrick's Day run. It was a great day for it and I gave it my all, finishing in 21:46.

Then I bought a few more accessories for the bike (U-lock and cushy seat cover), I took it out for it's first REAL ride. I have been using it to run errands, like going to the grocery store or library, which are only about a mile from my house. There is one big hill between my house and the grocery store though and I can ride all the way up it one way but coming back it is steeper on that side and I have had to walk it up.

So I was pretty nervous about attempting a longer bike ride. There were a few things I worried about.

(1) That I would get hit by a car. Other people on the road don't always pay attention! I know this, because as a runner, I have come VERY close to being hit a few times. I always feel a bit smaller when a bus comes within a few inches of me. I feel very small in fact.

(2) That I would have to walk up all the hills. Ah, failure, how we fear thee.

(3) That my butt would be on fire by mile 4. Hence the new cushy seat cover.

The Beast, with a new hat for the seat and a fancy St. Patty's day U-lock.

As a runner, we have the same issues. Chafe, pains, fear of failure, and feelings of fragility. So I am used to them. So I said to myself that it is no different than what I am used to, and I got to it. My running friend broke her toe and she asked me if I wanted to ride to a pub that was about 16 miles from my house. Why not? You only live once. YOLO!

It went well. In fact, it went better than I thought it would. I did NOT get run over. We started in Oakland, going through the town for about 7 miles before we got to the SF Bay Trail, where we stayed until we reached Richmond. We stopped for a St. Patrick's day beer at a local pub and then we headed back. We tackled one big hill on the way back and I didn't get off the bike once. The cushioned butt pad was fabulous!

Point Richmond

When I got back to Oakland, I had a humongous burrito and then headed for my final two miles to get home. Unfortunately, the last mile has another fairly steep hill (0 ft - 200 ft in about a half a mile) and I just couldn't do it. These legs were toast and they had really started to realize it when I sat down to eat the burrito.  But I made it. So that's one ride over.

See that hill at the very end? It was brutal!

Total miles: 41.4
Average speed: 11.3 mph

I am pretty excited, because I have always thought I would like to try a triathlon, but it's the biking that was my biggest fear. Now I just need to get over this week's "hill" in my Boston Training (and the Marathon itself) and then I can work on getting better at my biking skills! 

What did you do for St. Patrick's Day? Have you ever done a long bike ride? How do you combat butt soreness?

Wheels on Fire

I got a bike. It is not a new bike. In fact, from what I can tell from the interwebs, it is a circa 1980 road bike. It looks like this:

That is not the actual bike. I found that on the Google. So you can't really see, but the shifters are on the frame, rather than on the handles.

Weird right? Okay, so I have to admit, I don't know anything much about bicycles. I think the last bike I had was the kind with the tassels on the handlebars that you pushed the pedals backwards in order to brake. It may have even had a banana seat. But I have rented or borrowed a few grown up bikes and have ridden a bit, even in the city. I know, I am a big girl now. However, I have never had a bike with the shifters on the frame.

Since I have a bike now, I decided to get prepared. I have a helmet and a bike lock of course. I also got a patch kit, a tube and a really cool 19-in-1 tool that I have absolutely no idea how to use. It looks really fun though. I also got a red blinky light for the back,  another blinky light for the front AND just for fun, some LED lights you put in the tire valve and it makes fun colors or shapes when you ride.

I bet you are wondering if I am planning to ride the bike or just buy ridiculous accessories for it. I am strongly considering the latter. No, I am kidding. I actually rode it once. A whole mile and a half, in the dark, to go and drop off my library book. I didn't fall or get run over, so that's a start. However, there is a very big hill between my house and the library and I had to walk the bike up it because (a) I couldn't lean down to shift the gears, pedal AND hold the handlebars at the same time very well, and (b) My legs were like jello.

It seems we have our work cut out for us.

*title inspired by this song

What have you had to learn/relearn as an adult? Was it hard? Do you ride a bike?