Back in the Saddle

Had my "eat what you want" meal last night -- pizza and wine. It was great! Better than I anticipated.

Today hubby and I went on our first bike ride of the year. A little over 20 miles in 1:45. The wind killed me. I know I slowed him down, but he was very patient. I was shutting for a relaxing ride because it was the first, but wanted to run about 11 mph. My speed fluctuated between 10-11 mph on the way to NLR. About 13-15 mph on the ride back.

The ride didn't bother me at all (okay, maybe the saddle) except for the hills. They weren't even that big, but because I worked legs on Thursday and Friday at the gym -- and I'm out of shape on my bike -- I struggled on the hills. My thighs were burning.

I tried to tell myself "Don't look ahead." I was repeating things like: "You do this in the gym every single day" and "You can do this easily." I didn't want to look toward the crest of the hill, but just far enough to make sure I wasn't going to run into anyone. Twice I stopped (on two different hills). Once I was so close to the top but ran into a ton of people coming and going and knew I would have to really slow down. I quit. I shouldn't have.

The last 7 miles I performed much better and felt good. It's like it too me 13 miles to get up for it. It helped that we were coming back and the wind was more to our back. It just seemed to go faster on the way back.

I'm sure hoping we can make the bike rides a really regular part of our routine. I would love to ride at least twice a week. I'm not sure we can, but we will see. Maybe I need to go without hubby one day a week. It's just better knowing he's watching out for me.

Feeling great!