I'm RIDING in the rain...

50m! It's the furthest I've ever biked...and it was freaking pouring from mile 30 on to the end. Brian got a flat tire around 40 and didn't have a spare tube, so I flagged down a truck driver to get him a ride back. I realized shortly thereafter that not all truck drivers are cool and maybe just grabbing a random one wasn't the smartest thing in the world. But, all ended well and I even made it up the total bitch of a hill at the end of the ride.

I really enjoyed myself riding, which surprised me. I'm not usually a fan of the whole bike thing, honestly. I'm not all that great at it, and it just kind of hurts. But...today was fun. It was fun riding in a pack of people, and it just felt awesome to be outside. Coming back in the rain was even kind of nice, when I was able to ignore the fact that I was hungry and cold. (But I'm not going to complain about that, because no one likes a complainer...)

Backtrack to yesterday...

7m run in the morning (2m warm up with Kurt, and then the 5m St. Malachi Race)...it was a beautiful day outside and I had a nice relaxing run. I was a bandit at the race (breaking the law, breaking the law), and just ran it to get the miles in with people, and to cheer everyone else on. Bryce, Kurt, and Brian all ran kickass races...Bryce won 3rd in his age group, I believe. I ran part of the way with TriSaraTops, who unfortunately had a cramp, but ran a great race anyway (way to work through it, Sara!).

Then, I Sara and I rode from her house into the Rocky River Reservation, getting in about 22 miles. It was a great first outside ride, and it was nice to meet Sara's husband and her adorable pug.

So, it's been a pretty intense training weekend. I did decide something from it though...I'm definitely going to try to start splitting up my 'long' workouts. I know most people have to do both on the weekend because of time constraints, but since I don't...I think I'll try for a long run or bike on Wednesday or Thursday, and then do the other on one of the weekend days. That way my legs (hopefully) won't ever get to the totally depleted point where I have to take it too easy later on. Maybe it won't be the solution, but I'm going to try it for a while and see how it goes...

Oh, cool news! Phil got a road bike! It's a nice intro-level Trek (cool orange color!), and it'll be perfect for keeping me company on parts of my longer rides...and for just going out to enjoy ourselves too. I'm completely ecstatic he's going to start doing something athletic; I think he'll love riding...

That's about it with me. I've got to get some practicing in (recital in a week from today!) before I teach tonight...3 hours and 45 minutes...argh!

Pictures from the weekend to come soon...