Weekend Recap

Saturday is the big day. It's the CENTURY RIDE I've been training so much for.  I'm a little bit nervous, but honestly, I am beyond excited. Can I tell you a secret though? I'm sorta more excited for whats next in this whole cycling master plan of mine. Truth is while this century ride got me in shape quickly, my goal is not to continually spend hours and hours...and hours on my bike every weekend. Sure, there will be long rides, but not 80 mile long rides. So while I am not completely ready to dive into my what's next cycling plans I will happily talk about this past weekend.

Last weekend was the first weekend since April where I didn't stress out about ride routes or weather and it was such a welcomed change. I will admit though as we kicked back and relaxed I found myself asking Erik if this really was on our "training plan" for the weekend because it just seemed so strange. 


Saturday was a town wide garage sale and people from everywhere flock to these sales. By the time we woke up at 8:30 people had already crowded the streets. Rumor has it that people where out as soon as the sun came out. Lesson learned for next time I guess. For a town that has a few thousand residents (if that), it was really confusing to see the streets filled with people. I always joke that if I sat in Erik's front yard all day long on a Saturday that I maybe would see 20 people walk by.

Anyways, Erik and I wandered through some garage sales and he eventually ended up with a sweet acoustic guitar and a set of speakers for his garage. I, on the other hand, hate garage sales so the only thing I bought was two cups of freshly squeezed lemonade from a very cute 5 year old who was raising money for the Clean Water Project (http://thewaterproject.org). That lemonade was probably the best two dollars I ever spent.


Erik had some things set aside for the sale, so around noon we set up shop and within two hours were 80 bucks richer and he had gotten rid of some junk treasures. That 80 dollars funded the remainder of our weekend which included our very first ever trip to a drive-in movie theather. We pushed out his old Volkswagen in attempt to drum up some interest to sell it. 


Erik purchased it last summer as a "project car." At the time we had only been dating for about a month or two and things weren't super serious since we were just spending one day a week with each other. Of course as the year continued and we got more serious and work got more crazy Erik ran out of time to work on the car. When Erik's neighbor saw that Erik was selling the car he asked why he never finished it but before I could answer he asked "oh I bet it has something to do with you..." 


We decided to take some pictures before putting in back in the garage for Craigslist...I of course decided to practice my car modeling...for some weird reason I don't think I am going to be hired any time soon...I can't imagine why though...

Later that evening we packed up the jeep with a ton of snacks and set off to see Spider-Man and Ted. While I wasn't really thrilled with seeing either of those movies it was fun to take out Eriks jeep (with the top down and back seat flipped around) and hang out for the night. I didn't even stress out when we got home well after 2am...4+ hours past my old lady bedtime...no big deal.

Oh and then Sunday we completed a fast 25 mile ride and it was a blast. See that big hill near the end? Yeah, was my idea...the MS ride also has a #3 hill so while Erik was sure I would be fine, I wanted to make sure I could do it without quitting getting overly frustrated. 

Around mile 15 I even ate my first energy gel and surprise, surprise, it was disgusting. I made a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports earlier in the week and instead of picking out one or two flavors to try out I bought every flavor they had in stock, from every brand. The employee at the counter definitely judged my purchase but I quickly blurted out "I was afraid to commit to one flavor...or brand...for fear it will be disgusting...this way I have options."

The goal for trying a gel during the ride was to see if a) my stomach could handle it on a ride and b) to see if it made any difference on a mega hill. My stomach has recently decided to hate me, so in hopes of not having similar bathroom emergencies in my century ride like I experienced on my 80 miler, I thought it would be wise to make sure my stomach could in fact handle extra sugar.


Surprisingly the razz flavored gel made a difference...or maybe it was a placebo effect...who cares though, I made it up the hill without quitting. Basically this hill was my final "confidence booster" for Saturday.


Now if I can only make it through the rest of today and tomorrow because I have Friday off. 


Spoiler alert: Friday is my birthday!