Saturday Fun

What a great Saturday!! Up EARLY to get awake and coffeed up and out to Edgefield for our burliest ride of the season: Bull Run. 67 miles of hills, hills and more hills with over 4,500+ feet in climbing. It's brutal. Took us 2:50 to get to the half way mark and 2:25 to get back, so a little easier on the way back but your legs are so toasted, it still feels like poop. My knee started hurting almost immediately after the first hill so I popped some more advil at about mile 17 and decided that if the pain didn't subside I would quit at the half way mark rather than exacerabate the problem to the point of disabling me for Pac Crest. Fortunately for me, the advil worked and I felt great at the aid station at mile 33.5!! Not so great was that knee problems did not work themselves out for Tim or Sheryl and they ended their ride at that point. That dropped us down to only 9 riders since Coach Scott blew his tire. We heard that Sherrie wiped out on a corner descent so I wasn't sure she was continuing on either. The descents on this ride are crazy. CRAZY, I say! You'll be bombing down a hill and then realize you're right on a sign that says 10mph corner ahead...yikes!! It was raining on us, too - so the roads were SLICK and covered with debris from the big storm the other day.

Scott took over Tim's front wheel since he didn't need it and Sherrie was a stud and continued to ride even after the fall, so we still had a good group finishing the ride. I can't believe how different this year compared to last at Bull Run. Last year I was very close to bonking or actually probably was bonking for the last 10 miles and this year I really had my nutrition RIGHT ON! I should have had one more gel to really get it right, but the sweetness is so hard for me to take at that point in a long ride so I just skipped it - plus I knew I had a SKOR bar waiting in the truck for me when I finished! (I don't care if sweets don't appeal to me...I ALWAYS have tastebuds for a SKOR bar). I got off my bike at the end and felt fantastic!! My quads were cramping so bad last year that I couldn't bend over, could barely get my bike on the truck and cried from the pain. This year - I felt like a million bucks! ALSO>>>cut off 35 minutes from last year's time. I don't know that I'm any stronger this year than last, but that's the difference a road bike makes vs. a mountain bike. Legs are tired today, but not too bad. Swelling has gone down significantly since yesterday in my left knee, but I still might postpone today's 10 mile run until tomorrow.

BUT THE BEST PART OF SATURDAY was going to see Dane Cook at the Rose Garden. I decided to surprise Steve with Isolated Incident tickets, so we dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the night and we headed downtown. Shared a yummy burger and onion rings at the pre-show restaurant/bar - which is unusual for me...the sharing of a burger part. Normally I refuse to go halfsies, but I managed to down a whole bag of chips when I got home from the ride and ruined my appetite :-(

I also got smashed off of two measly glasses of wine which I assume is from the ride kicking my butt. Then we headed in to what was probably the most laughing ever in the history of me!! The two opening comedians had me laughing so hard that I had tears squirting out of my eyes continuously. I finally had to use my shirt as a tissue because my face was sopping wet. By the time Dane came out, I was a mess - he had me smiling so much that my cheeks really did feel like they were about to pop off my face and fly across the room - JUST what I was looking for in an evening. I have NEVER and I mean NEVER seen my husband smile and laugh so much in the entire time I've know him. Good Stuff!

So, I guess it doesn't matter if you cry for two hours straight out of sadness or hilarity, either way, your eyes don't lie the next day. I look like I cried all night long. The bag of chips probably didn't help my puffiness out so much either.

So maybe a run today, maybe not. Definitely a long swim and Jack's school is having a big carnival today, so sounds like that's where our party's at today.
Have a Super Sunday, all!!