I Want to Ride My Bicycle. I Want to Ride My Bike.

   Saturday was the first really nice day of the year. Nashville got up into the mid-70's and you know what that means - BIKE RIDE!! Unlike running, which is very doable in colder weather, cycling is best experienced in warmer temperatures. At least for me it is.
   So I get up and load up the bike (well, Ok, Dudley loaded up the bike) and I met up with the gang at FTP up in Sumner County. I admit, I was a little concerned about how this ride was going to go. It was only the night before that Dudley had changed my tube and tire from a flat that I had LAST OCTOBER. Yes, it had been that long since I'd been on my trusty Litespeed. Sad, I know.
   The group was to ride about 26-miles, which was a 13-mile course repeated twice. The route was really nice - rolling hills with one or two harder climbs, but nothing crazy, and not many cars. Kicker was - it was WINDY. Seriously. Flags flying straight out kind of windy. (Sidebar: when did Nashville get so crazy windy? I've lived here for 15 years and I've noticed a significant increase in wind over the past year.) Anyway, we start riding and immediately broke up into groups, with Carissa and I riding together since we're close to same ability. It was just the two of us having a nice ride for about the first ten miles until we hit Long Hollow Parkway...when we hit a headwind.
   Now this was no ordinary headwind. This was the type of headwind where you're pedaling but don't really seem to be going anywhere. The kind where you have to pedal DOWNHILL because the wind is so strong. I mean, come on! That's not fair. You kill yourself to get up a hill and then you still have to pedal downhill? Not cool wind, not cool.
   We finally make it one loop and Carissa and I decide to take a different route this time to avoid Long Hollow. We couldn't completely avoid the wind, but we could at least have a little buffer from the trees. So we get going again and we're about two miles I realize that I'm hot and want to remove my arm-warmers. In theory, this should be an easy task that I can do without stopping. But my Garmin and my Road ID (don't ride/run without it!) were over my arm-warmers, so pulled over to remove them and told Carissa to ride on. My plan was to hammer it and see if I could catch her once I got going again.
   That plan lasted about one mile. Did I catch her? Uh no. Not even close. But what I did do was bonk. All of that riding in the wind completely depleted my energy, but I didn't realize it until I started climbing the main hill on the road. I knew I was hungry, but I went from hungry to shaky in a matter of a few minutes. Then I turned and had to face that stupid headwind again...UGH! I almost didn't have the energy to stay on the road. It was terrible.
   The worst part about bonking like this is that it's completely avoidable. I know you have to eat something every 45-minutes or so. But I thought "oh, it's only 26 miles. I'll be fine." Nope.  Lesson learned.
   But there is some good news that came out of my bonk. In my "Must. Eat. Now." frenzy for food, I went to the closest non-fast food restaurant I could find. I ended up at a great little restaurant called the Chef's Market and it was FANTASTIC. If you live up there, you must go. It's basically a locally-owned Panera/Bread & Co., but everything is made in-house. It's really, really good.
   And on a quick update for TNT - I'm currently at $5,050! I missed the group training because of the bike ride, but I did go out and volunteer with TNT at the local St. Patrick's Day 5k/10k - "Kegs & Eggs." I love volunteering at races. If you race, and you have never volunteered at one, you really should. It'll give you an entirely new perspective of a race-day experience.

GO TEAM!

   Even though I've met my goal, I'm still fund-raising!  If you care to donate, click here! http://pages.teamintraining.org/tn/nikewhlf13/kmylls  Thanks!