My plans are thwarted.  I had big plans to ride every morning this week; however my body or mind or the One who knows the plan better than me is overriding my plan.

I got a ride in Sunday after I met a girlfriend for coffee. We had a great visit.  We were chatting and laughing and I could tell the man sitting behind us was getting a kick out of our conversation.  He was wearing a jersey so I assumed he had just either completed or was getting ready to ride. 

I mentioned to my girlfriend that I was planning to see Magic Mike after work on Tuesday with a couple of friends from work; she would be out of town.  I couldn’t remember Channing Tatum’s name, I confuse his first and last name… We were laughing saying basically, it doesn’t matter what his name was so long as we could enjoy him dancing….  I was watching the guy behind my friend smiling and laughing at us being so obnoxious about the movie.  He chimed into our conversation saying that some gals he runs with saw it and said there is too much story and not enough skin!  We laughed and chatted with him for a couple of minutes.

He asked if we ran or rode, my girlfriend told him that I rode and ran.  He is prepping for the Death Ride, I told him I just read about that and a guy I work with had talked about it. I’d love to do it someday, but I have a feeling I will not be recruiting any of my friends to do it with me.  I’m working on a couple of ‘em to do Centuries with me, I have one taker for a 100 mile Lake Tahoe ride next year, now I just have to get her on her bike.

I digress; anyway, he asks my girlfriend why she doesn’t ride.  She jokes an excuse about her knees, he rebuts.  He tells us how his one friend started riding a year or so ago and he has lost 80 pounds and another friend started running and has seen the same types of results.  I help him encourage my girlfriend (because the more friends I have to ride with the merrier) and then we head out the door.

She looks at me laughing, and states what was he trying to tell me?  We hug and part ways.

The only problem was it was HOT Sunday afternoon, an 11:30 start was a bad plan, but I didn’t want to flake on my coffee date.  I ate a little something before heading to Starbucks.  My girlfriend treated me to a latte and a pumpkin scone, however the scone was rich and I didn’t want to eat the whole thing prior to my ride, plus I was still full from my breakfast.  When I arrived home I had about 15 to 20 minutes to prepare to get ready before my friend arrived to ride.  I started feeling hungry, so I grabbed some bread and almond butter, two bites in my phone rings, my friend is almost here but is getting a little hungry and was checking to see if maybe I had a banana to spare, unfortunately, nope, but I offered her a peanut butter and honey sandwich.  So we ate and then got ready.  It was hot, why are we doing this again, a pool would be the smarter choice.  Mmmm a margarita and a pool.  Ok, we’re here to ride, let’s roll…

We’re off to a hilly start, we get down a hill and just as we are about to ascend the first baby hill my partner realizes she only has one glove, it worked for Michael Jackson, but not so well for a ride, we turned back around heading back up the hill to my house, gee it’s much easier at the beginning of a ride!

Ok, all gear is accounted for now and we’re off.  We stop at 7-11 for a forgotten needed item, they don’t have it, and we go across the street to the 76 Station, nope. Really?  We climb Folsom Lake Crossing like snails across a salt track. My gosh it’s hot.  We roll into the Raley’s parking lot; they will have what we need.

Ok, now we’re good, back on the road.  We’re about 8 miles into the ride, she’s drinking water like I’ve never seen before (she’s like a camel, hardly drinks while I joke I’m adding two more bottle racks to my bike, just to horrify any self respecting roadie!).  She’s thirsty, I’m getting hungry again, what the heck? We decide to cut across the downhill part of the Costco hill and stop at Coffee Republic; they will have a smoothie/slushy type drink and some food or I can eat my peanut butter pretzel bites.

We roll up, secure our bikes so they don’t fall over go to open the door, it’s locked, the place is empty, there’s a notice on the door, location closed.  Oh, how come we didn’t notice the lack of light and activity before getting off our bikes?  Because, it’s hot!  Ok, there has got to be a smoothie place around here. I can’t think, I put Smoothie on my iPhone map, it finds a place a ways away, not on our planed route.  There has got to be someplace else.  I think Pink Berry, so I call, yep, score!   Ok, they make ‘em. We start to roll again, I forget we’re at the wrong intersection, so I say, no problem, we can go left at the next intersection, but look, right there just ahead on our right, a Jamba Juice, we turn in.

We order our smoothies, they kindly refill our water bottles and we sit down and enjoy the frozen slushy's and I scarf down my peanut butter pretzels and some almonds.   Now, we need to get going as we are rounding in to the hottest park of the day.  We plan our way home, not the mileage of the ride we envisioned, but a decent ride and we won’t succumb to the heat. 

We roll in just after 3, we made our goal of getting in by 3 (sort of). We agree, no more afternoon rides in the summer, they need to be planned for morning or late evening before dark.   We check the odometer, not bad for a completely unplanned route, 20 miles, I’ll take it, but in the cool morning air, next time! Per my Cyclemeter iPhone application: 21.64 miles, 1:49:10 ride time, 967 calories.

Monday, I wake up at 5; hit the road by 5:50. The sunrise over Folsom Lake is incredible. I stop to snap a photo with my phone.  I notice my shadow on the hill across the street, I snap a self portrait.  Man, this is the life I think to myself.  How blessed I am feeling.  I do my Costco hill route, I am pushing myself. I don’t work from home today and I need to be back no later than 7:30 to get ready to go to work.  I am trying to do some interval sprints on the flats and power up hills.  I keep my MPH at 30 and then 25 on Empire Ranch heading down.  Usually I keep it around 25 then 18. Feeling good! 

I get home and my ride time was under an hour and 30 minutes, wow! I busted it out!  I get ready for work.  An uneventful ride, a great morning! Per my Cyclemeter iPhone application: 21.84 miles, 1:29:16 ride time, 980 calories.

Tuesday, alarm goes off at 5 AM, I DON’T want to get up, I had a hard time falling asleep last night, but I’m going to get up and ride, dang it!  I get suited up, and head out the door.  I’m tired, I’m sore; I need to find my happy place.  I get rolling; I get to the same hill as Sunday and realize I forgot my gloves, oh well, not going back because if I have to go into the house, I will crawl back into bed!

I head for the Costco hill, pedal legs, pedal!  I take a picture of the sunrise over the lake but moving this time, the sun was up higher so the pics are just really bright, I should have stopped, but I’m afraid to stop moving. I ride on. I see another gal lapping a hill off Empire Ranch, yeah, I’ve wondered about that one, mental note to check it out … another day.

I try to bust out the ride to compare my time to yesterday, I’m tired and I’m hungry again.  I pop in a peanut butter pretzel bite.  I make it down to the entrance to Costco, turn around, eat another pretzel bite because that 20 calories will give me all the energy I need to power up the hill, yep, keep telling yourself that girlie! 

Up the hill, back down, I can’t get that 30 MPH pace on the straight away I had yesterday, but I push for 25 MPH, my speedometer must be broken, why can’t I get the speed up. Ugh…  My ride is over half over, so I try and bust out my speed, I do well for awhile and then slow down, speed up, slow down, interval training is good I tell myself!

I get to the intersection of Natomas and Blue Ravine, my lane is ending with a sign that says “share the road,” yeah, that’s just what the morning commuters want to do, be held up on their normally 50 MPH road with construction and a cyclist.  I don’t see how I’m going to do this… I make a left into the Fresh and Easy and hit the walking trail, it’s hillier than the road, come on legs, you can do it!  I get to the light and it’s green so I cross back over to the other side, there go two guys who are not only sharing the road but are riding side by side and look like they are just gliding up the hill.  Grrrr, I mean wow, they’re strong.

Next thing I know they have vanished, must be ghost riders, yeah that’s it.  I’m still tired, but I feel good, blessed to be out and doing what I love, can’t start the morning better, well, I could have gotten enough sleep first, but it is what it is.

I roll up to the house ready to hit stop on my Cyclemeter to compare my time for yesterday.  It’s stuck on a graph screen I can’t get it to the stopwatch.  Mind you, it stops tracking ride time when I stop, so really my ride time is calculated, it’s just my stopped time that will get messed up if I can’t stop the clock and it will drain my phone battery.  I want my exact times; I can’t get the screen to switch. Remember, I’m tired; I go into full meltdown over this.   My phone was almost a casualty of this; luckily some reason was able to interrupt the tantrum. After some choice words and some two year old tantrum moves, I head to the shower to cool off, have one more mini tantrum and then reason starts to take over me, thank goodness!  Hello, it’s not the end of the world, all you need is ride time and it will be there, once I can get to the screen!  Wow, tired and competitive with a bad application, not a good thing for me.

Finally an hour and a half later I turn on my phone and the stopwatch screen appears.  I get my stats: 1:32:18 ride time, 22.08 miles and 952 calories.  I’m good, only 3 minutes slower than yesterday, not sure where the extra 1/4 mile came in, but now it’s time for coffee, coffee and coffee.

Yeah the coffee, coffee, coffee was a bad move. I was so tired; I went to bed at 10 but yet didn’t fall asleep until 2 AM, no Wednesday morning ride for me.  I hate when I’m so tired I can’t sleep.  So my everyday riding schedule for this week is kaput.  I fell asleep even later last night, so no ride today either.  I might ride the 3 miles to my Grandma’s tonight if it’s not to blazing hot, then the 3 miles home. It would be something.  I did a another pseudo Crossfit workout last night (4 laps around the track, 150 jumping jacks, 50 burpies, 2 laps, 100 jumping jacks, 35 burpies, 1 lap, 50 jumping jacks and 20 burpies) good workout (even with the teenage girls lapping me around the track), I do need to cross train.  Looks like a DVD tonight… Here’s hoping for sleep tonight and a ride tomorrow, but super early as I have to be to work super early… Have a blessed day, because all in all, life is good! Hugs!

Here are two pictures I took on my Monday Morning ride.