Happy Birthday, Mom!

Friday was my mother's birthday...oh yes, and Happy Mother's Day too! My parents' 40th wedding anniversary is the 18th, so my dad surprised my mom by taking her to a B&B for the weekend. They had a great time, and I'm glad they were able to get away!

I had dog duty, so I stayed at their house. Max (the parents' dog) is just weird. That boy follows you everywhere, chases his tail incessantly, stares at you from the bedside...just an odd duck (or I guess, dog). Anyway, it kind of hampers the solid sleep.

My training schedule called for a 110-mile bike ride Saturday. I had some things going on in the morning, so I planned to start around noon. Terry put my new Garmin on (THANKS TERRY!), so I was pretty excited to test it out. I was not, however, excited about the weather forecast. I feel like a broken record, but it really seems that all of our weekend riding has been cold, rain, snow, or wind. Saturday was no different, it was cool and windy when I started. And, though it looked like rain, it wasn't raining at that point. I was flying solo, so I double-checked that I had plenty of stuff with me, cell phone, tubes, co2, etc., and I took off. I stuck with a familiar route - the one Troy and I did last weekend. It still takes you out quite a ways, so I was a touch concerned about the weather. I'm also not thrilled about riding in the boonies alone, but as it turned out, I was fine - hence the blog entry. ha ha
Not quite an hour into the ride, it started raining. Thankfully, it was pretty light, yet the ol' glasses were so wet I had to take them off. Have you ever ridden in the wind and rain, down a hill - without your shades? You almost just want to close your eyes. It didn't take too long, and I was just soaked! I could feel the water running through my shoes. Other than being soaked and a little cold, my body didn't feel too bad. I kept riding. I started to do a 2nd loop on this one portion of the route, but the sky was really getting pretty dark, and I just didn't want to chance it with the weather. So, I stuck to the more straight shot, back towards my car. I would be pretty close to 100 miles when I got back there, and I could just wind through some neighborhoods and what not to get the extra 10. That way, if it started to get ugly, I could take cover.
Thank goodness I headed back when I did. I was about 1/2 mile from the car when I heard thunder and saw a bit of lightening. I was still considering finishing it off, but I started getting hit with larger raindrops and decided to call it good. Just after loading everything into the car and peeling off the sopping clothes, it started storming! I could hardly see to drive, so I'm really grateful I wasn't stuck on my bike!

I talked to Troy and Steve following the ride, and just felt good to be done. Troy finished his run too, and was happy to avoid the rain. I'm jealous that he is done with his long ride/run on Saturdays and has Sundays to recover. :-)

I definitely felt tired yesterday morning when I woke up. Really tired. After church, I was really dragging. I came back to my parents' house and was getting ready to chow down when they got home. The dogs were pretty excited to see them! They had a great time away and showed me all the stuff they got and told me about the trip. Shortly afterwards, I headed home. I stretched out on the couch and quickly fell asleep. I didn't wake up until after 6pm!!! Yeowch! (that sounds like you, Robyn!)

Not only did I miss the evening service at church, but I hadn't done my run. I had a headache and was just exhausted! I thought maybe I'd feel a little better if I ate. Nope, that didn't help either. Took some motrin. Nope, that didn't help either. I just couldn't do much at all...just sat on the couch, like a wet noodle. Needless to say, I didn't go run, and I'm feeling horribly guilty. I'll have to fess up to ol' coach and see what he says...