Motivated...Lunatic....maybe both!

Who's up for a little 60 mile bike ride???  C'mon you know you wanna go!!!!   I sure wanted to do!  Last night I  pulled up mapmyrun.com and plotted out a 60 mile ride.  I would leave my house in Boise and ride to Nampa and around Lake Lowell and back through Nampa and head back to my place in Boise.

I took a look at the weather.  It said a high of 43 with afternoon showers.  I checked the hourly forecast and it said it would be cold in the morning with showers starting around 2:30.  Okay, I can deal with this.  I have rain gear.  I posted my plan on Facebook and my Bunco friend, Hair Stylist extraordinaire (who happens to live just off the route I was taking in Nampa) offered to make me a yummy lunch.  Sweet!  Couldn't ask for a better pit stop!!!

This morning, I made sure to get up early and make a GOOD breakfast.  Gotta fuel the body properly if you are gonna work it this hard.   I put on my warm clothes including my rain gear.  I packed my hydration pack with extra warm gear (just in case) and my snacks, money and ID.  I checked my tires; they were all good to go.  But my tummy was giving me a different vibe.  And it's cold out there!  I checked the weather channel again it had changed.  It still said a high of 43 with a humidity of 51% and it said snow at 9am with rain at 10am and again at 2:30.  Le Sigh.  I wasn't feeling well.  Something was telling me to stay home curled up on the couch where it was warm.  Then there was this nagging feeling that *something* wasn't right.

Really?   I made all the plans, I checked and double checked everything.  I often get this feeling before a big work out.  It's so much easier to stay home than it is to get out there and push my body.  So, I did what I have done every other time...I went anyway!

I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED!!!!!!!!!  There is a reason we have an intuition and we really should listen to it!

The bike ride started out like any other bike ride.  Ya, it was a bit chilly but it was all good.  In the distance, Bogus Basin was covered in snow to the North and the Owyhees were covered in snow to the South.  I live in such a beautiful place!  I made it all the way to Nampa and started heading to the Lake. I even did one of my amazing "I'm doing nothing" falls.  Seriously? How does that happen?  It was a comedy of errors, only this time no one was around to see it.  Back up and at it again, to the Lake I went.  The roads looked familiar and I had sweet memories and flash backs of the Lake Lowell Marathon.   Not gonna lie, my toes had gone numb and I could no longer see the Owyhees and the snow was blowing in.  Brrrrrrrrr.  I made a turn and that wind was blowing right at me.  The ride was getting harder and slower.  Much slower.

I had stopped to message Shannon to let her know that I was going to be late.  With her, "Keep it up.  I"ll see ya when I see ya" message, my spirits were boosted.  Sometimes something so simple can work wonders.  My spirit was lifted and I was ready to hit it.  But something wasn't right.  No matter how hard I peddled I felt like I was peddling through a sandy beach, and believe me I was FAR FAR away from anything warm and sandy.  I stopped again, to get my granola bar thinking maybe I was just low on fuel.  I looked up and saw the snow blowing vertical to the street.  Ugggg.  What little time I had my fingers uncovered, they were hurting from the cold wind.  Moving was the only thing that was going to keep me warm.  I started again.  But, wow!  It was HARD!!!!   I peddled some more.  I found myself questioning my sanity.  What was I thinking???  How am I going to do a 400 mile bike ride in a week if I am struggling so hard at 30 miles?  What was wrong with me today?  Was it the cold?  Was it the 20 miles on skates last night?  I stopped again for another bite of my bar.  I was at 34 miles.  I had another 6 or so to get to Shannon's house.  That is when I noticed it.

Tires aren't supposed to look like that are they?

A freakin' flat tire!!!!  And before you ask. No.  I have not learned to change a flat yet, and NO I do not have the standard "Flat Fixin' Pack" on my bike, and YES I am way far away from home and its snowy and COLD outside!  

I called Shannon and thankfully she could come pick me up.  When she got there, she said, "You have more motivation in your little pinky than I have in my whole body."  I had to laugh and my reply was, "No,  just more insanity."   Now, before you argue with me and say, "Don't put yourself down", take a look at this definition:

in·sane

   [in-seyn]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

not sane; not of sound mind; mentally deranged.

2.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who ismentally deranged: insane actions; an insane asylum.

3.

utterly senseless: an insane plan.

"Utterly senseless:  an insane plan"  Yup that pretty much describes my 60 mile ride today:  not feeling well, cold, snow and rain in the forecast AND I was woefully unprepared for a flat tire that would of course happen miles away from civilization!!!!

Thankfully, Shannon could pick me up and take me back to her place and feed me amazing, hot Irish Stew with a glass of red wine to warm me up.  Gratefully, my hubby could take some extra time off of work to come rescue me from Shannon's place in Nampa and get me home safe and sound.   I have been home for a little over 2 hours and I'm STILL cold!!!!!

BTW, I checked my tire.  No holes.  No prickly stickers.  I aired it up and it seems perfectly fine.  I have no idea what caused  my flat tire.  But you can rest assured I will NOT be going out again without learning how to change a flat or with at least a pump to pump up some weirdly flat tire with no visible reason to be flat!  Lesson learned.

So Yes, I'm a Lunatic, but at least I'm a motivated Lunatic!  Now if I can just learn to discern between the "I don't want tos" and my actual intuition :).

Thank you for following me in this adventure!  To find more information on the Fuller Center for Housing, the Bike Adventure, or to make a donation to my $2000 goal, please click here.

Santa's Little Elf and Tandem Bike Riding..a Team Building Exercise

This past week has been kind of a crazy week for me.  I did that long bike ride on Monday, but really haven't done much ON a bike since then.  (Gonna have to rectify that this week.)

However, some really great things happened..some centered around bikes some not.

First, I would like to celebrate the fact that I am finally cleared from knee surgery!!!  I am now allowed to run and do Zumba to my hearts content.  However, I need to be mindful as my knee will still take a little bit more time to heal (at least this is what my intuition is telling me).  I did get in some great running this week and some great dancing without pain, so this is exciting!!!

I also had the great opportunity to visit my favorite dance studio here in town...Ophidia Studio.  I needed a "pick me up" and decided to take a Hula Hoop Dance Class.  I have been trying to recapture my childhood with the hula hoop for years, but for whatever reason, the visit to the dance class did the trick!  What ever, Donna, the teacher told me, stuck and the next day I pulled out my daughter's hula hoop and WHAM, I was hoopin' it up!!!  Yay!!!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned, but along this journey of training for the Spring Ride of the Fuller Center for Housing, I am also volunteering with the Boise Bike Project (BBP).  The Boise Bike Project is a non-profit organization that recycles old bikes, refurbishes them, and gives them away to children and refugees.  They also sell adult bikes at inexpensive prices.  The whole idea is to encourage the community to get back on the bikes and enjoy the outdoors.  BBP is gearing up for the Christmas Children's Bike Give Away and they sent out an email asking if someone could pick up 4 bikes from a local Walmart.   I gladly responded and called Walmart to make the arrangements.  They didn't have 4 bikes, they had 12 bikes!!!!  I drive a Subaru Legacy and have a bike rack that holds 3 bikes.  This was gonna be a fun afternoon!  Here's a question:  How many bikes can you put into a Subaru Legacy????  The answer is 7!

I was so blessed to be able to pick up these bikes and deliver them to BBP. It was a gorgeous snowy day and it totally made me feel like Santa's Little Elf!!!  I can't wait to give these bikes to the children!

The other amazing thing that happened this week is that my friend, Kurt, gifted us with an amazing tandem bike!!!  When he asked me if we would be interested in the bike, I was all kind of excited and had grand dreams of long bike rides and picnics in the park with my hubby.  Sounds romantic, doesn't it?  Ya, I thought so, too.  However, I was not prepared for team building experience that was ahead.  Tracy and I have ridden a tandem bike before (years ago).  We rented one in San Fran and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. I was so out of shape, I actually had to get off the bike so that my husband could ride the bike up the hills by himself.  This time around, with our own tandem bike, I am the one who is in shape and my hubby is working towards that direction.  It was decided I would take lead with this bike since I am stronger.  Today, we finally got on the bike for a longer ride than round our 1 street subdivision.  What I got today was a lesson is listening, being observant, truly FEELING what was going on on top of the bike and making adjustments when necessary, being a gentle leader and being patient.  It was a great experience.   Though because of Tracy's long body, I do believe I will be riding in the back seat from now on.  He just doesn't fit in the back seat of that tandem bike.

Easy Road? What Easy Road?

Last night while mapping out possible routes to ride on Mapmyrun.com, I gave myself 2 choices.  A 30 mile ride to the city of Nampa or a 60 mile ride to Swan Falls Damn (through the desert).  I posted on Facebook my 2 choices and my friend, Day, replied with, "I"m surprised you are even asking.  When was the last time you took the easy road, Lady??"

I didn't see Day's reply until this morning, but last night I remembered a route I have been wanting to take.  For years I have wanted to take a road called Hill Road that runs along the foothills of Boise.  It's a street I have not spent much time on and an area of town I have never seen.  And I won't lie, this route was sounding a bit shorter than 60 miles and I liked that idea.  I really kinda wanted to take that "Easy Road" today.  Some days are just like that.

This morning, before my ride, I started to map out my route.  It was looking like a little over 30 mile route which would include a massive hill that has been mocking me!  It's one of those hills that I have seen cyclists ride and think.."Man they are crazy!"  I actually did half of the hill last Friday for my friends 40th birthday run celebration, but the whole hill was still mocking me and since it would be towards the end of my ride I knew my legs would be a bit tired.  I decided that hill would make up for the "short" ride.  So maybe it was only half of the "easy road".  Ya, I can justify just about anything.

It was a beautiful day for a ride!  Just gorgeous!  And it seemed like lots of other cyclists thought the same thing. I must have seen like 50 of them out for rides today..and on a "school day"!  The ride along Hill Road was beautiful. I saw lots of houses I have never seen before and some just amazed me! This one property was older and the house was built into the ground. It was very interesting. It had one little level (looked like one room) that was above ground.  I wonder how dark it is in that house.  I saw another that was adding some kind of addition to their older home and it looked like it would look like a hobbit hole when it was done.  It was pretty cool.  My least favorite part of the ride was the part where I had to ride through downtown Boise.  Just not my favorite.  But it did get me to Subway for my lunch time refueling!   I have seen all those advertisements for Subway using Olympians and athletes and they kinda make me laugh cause honestly I don't think Olympians are eating at Subway.  But today, I had to take a picture cause it kinda hit home today.

"The official Training Restaurant of Athletes Everywhere"    I'm an athlete, and I'm training and I'm eating at Subway.  Does that put me in the same ranks as Michael Phelps?  Ya, I don't think so either.  But for some reason today, it just struck me as appropriate in a funny way.

Back on the ride, I hit the greenbelt (my favorite place to ride).  At about mile 25 or so, it dawned on me, that I could do another 25 miles.   There would be no "Easy Road" for me today.  I was going to ride 50 miles AND take those blasted hills that are mocking me.  This will be my longest ride yet!  I calculated what changes needed to be made to my route to make this happen. It would be a simple extension (out and back) trip before hitting where I was originally just going to hit those hills.  It also meant that instead of taking the one road straight home, I would hit old familiar roads with more hills up in the desert near my home.  Yup, I was gonna make this happen!

I know I have probably said this many times. But I truly live in one of the most beautiful cities in America!  Boise is blessed to have an amazing Greenbelt system that makes bike riding so  much fun!  Here is a picture to show off just some of that beauty.  It's a shot of the Boise River and an old Dam/Power House.

It's beauty like that that refuels my soul for what is to come.  Those dreaded hills!  I took pictures of them, but I don't think the pictures do them justice!

Just about the time you get to the top of the first hill, you see the next one which is even steeper and curves to the left and keeps going up!  Ya, its a fun one, alright!  But I have to say that with my new clip peddles, these hills are so much easier to take!!!!!  I LOVED it!  And while I was heading up that last hill, the song "I Got This" came on my iPod.  Yup, I had it...and I was just gonna keep on going to reach my 50 mile goal!!!

Later on in my ride, I hit several more hills and I was so tired, but I remembered what I was training for and just how blessed I am.  While most people spend their day sitting at a desk, standing behind a register, cleaning up after people, teaching our children or any other number of jobs out there, I get to spend my day riding my bike 50 miles!  I get to spend it in the glorious sunshine and autumn leaves.  I get to spend it training for a 400 mile bike ride that will help other people have safer homes to live in!  Yes, I may be tired.  My legs may hurt.  My bum may be a bit sore from the saddle.  But this is NOTHING compared to people who are living in substandard housing. This is NOTHING compared to people who struggle every day just to keep a roof over their head.  Its NOTHING compared to the struggles of the people who live in poverty.  And THAT is why I am riding my bike 50 miles today!  I am riding for THEM.  I am training for THEM!  And that thought gives me the strength to keep on peddling up those hills.

Yes, in life we have a choice. We can take the Easy Road or we can take a road that is much more challenging.  You can choose to ignore the needs of people who struggle and live your life in a  happy daze of cluelessness OR you can wake up and look around and see that people are suffering.  By making yourself uncomfortable, by making even small sacrifices in your life, you can make a HUGE difference in some one else's life.  Which road are you going to take today?   I guarantee you, the road with more challenges..the road that helps others is so much more rewarding than that "Easy Road"!

There are so many ways you can help others, but if you feel lead to, please consider helping me raise money for the Fuller Center for Housing.  The money you donate will go towards their Greater Blessing Program in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to help repair homes for those who can not do it for themselves. To find more information on the Fuller Center for Housing, the Bike Adventure, or to make a donation to my $2000 goal, please click here.

Thanks for reading my blog and supporting me!  It means a great deal to me!  Have a great day!