Don't let the door hit ya, 2008

Dear 2008,

Man, will I be glad to see you go. At first glance, it seems like I really shouldn't be that angry with you. After all, it was 2007 that took my husband away from me for over a year. But still, you did bring things like this and this to me out of nowhere.

I did my best to celebrate your arrival. I went out with two friends to an overcrowded bar, even though all I wanted to do was sleep! Maybe you could tell, though, since you decided to do all you could to drag yourself out, throwing a leap year at me and even adding an extra second to yourself tonight.

I did my best to make you go by quickly, and praise the Lord you did. I kept myself ridiculously busy with training and completing umpteen billion athletic feats (OK, like 6, but whatever. It was a lot.). I went on a couple trips with friends. I got promoted. I met some famous people. I went to a handful of concerts (interesting ones and awesome ones). I rode a hot air balloon for the first time and made it to Day 12 for the first time ever with K. Thanks to K, I got pampered a lot, which was definitely awesome. And I was only in one wedding this year (sorry, haven't blogged about it ... but it was just over a week ago, and I haven't even looked at my pictures yet!).

But I spent a lot of 2008 just waiting, getting by. Almost everything I did was designed to get me closer to 2009. Every step, every pedal, every countdown (man, there were a lot of those!) was added intentionally to make the next countdown seem that much closer. I spent a lot of time exhausted, but my plan worked.

Despite your stubbornness and added time, 2008, I won't look back at you as a bad year, but I'm still glad to see you go. And I'm going to celebrate tonight the way I wanted to last year: I'm going to bed. And I'm sleeping in.

And when I wake up tomorrow, I'll have a smile on my face. It's just that I'm really looking forward to so many things 2009 holds for me: My Sooners are in the national championship (here's hoping we don't roll over and die), I'll get to leave Dallas (thank you, Jesus!), K and I will have our "real" wedding (and it will be awesome!), and I'll finally finally finally get to live with my husband (in case you're wondering, we still don't know where).

But the part of 2009 I'm most looking forward to will come only a few days into the year: K will come home.

So please don't dawdle on your way out, 2008. I'm ready to start living to the fullest again.

Love,
me

I'm not riding my bike again for a long time

The Ho.tter'N Hell Hund.red was last Saturday. (I had a few other things to catch you up on first.) I rode all 102 miles. It's over. Thank goodness.


The starting line. Notice how it's still dark.
















The ride started after the Army band played the national anthem. Then, there was a flyover, and a canon was fired.
















Looking back over downtown W!chita Falls.











One of the early rest stops had flags lining both sides of the road leading up to it. It was really cool. I didn't take this at a very good angle -- the flags looked much closer together from the middle of the road.
















At the rest stop just before what's known as Hell's Gate, this guy was spraying people down with a water hose. It felt awesome!
















The HHH is known for Hell's Gate. In fact, one of the quotes you hear often about the ride is "Hell's G.ate sets the standard." Because of the intense heat that you experience in August in Texas, there's a time limit if you want to complete the 100-mile route. To enforce the time limit, they have Hell's Gate, which falls 60 miles into the ride. It usually closes at 12:30, but they have medical technicians who determine if it needs to be closed earlier due to weather conditions. It can close as early as 11:00. (Those who reach Hell's Gate after it has closed are rerouted to an 80-mile path.)
















It's Hell's Gate! It looks different than I thought it would. :)





















This is the "unofficial rest stop" I'd heard so much about from people I know who'd ridden the HHH before. It used to be just a man and several people handing out beers on the side of the road. I heard it was cheap, warm and just half-a-cup worth, but everyone who told me about it swore it's the best beer you'll ever have.
















The stop usually falls at mile 98. The route was 102 miles this year, so the stop fell at mile 100. That wasn't all that had changed. They had six kegs, each a different kind of beer. They even had hot links and chili!





















AJ and I, both done with the ride. AJ's computer on her bike said that it was 106 degrees during the ride. It factored in road heat, so that was higher than the actual temperature. But considering we definitely feel the road heat, I say it was 106!
















No more getting up at 5:15 on Saturdays for training rides!!! Woohoo!

I've hung out with a lot of bloggers lately

I can't believe all the things I did last weekend. Here's a rundown:

• Got a few things fixed on my bike on Friday night
• Bought a pair of cowboy boots (I think I might have had a pair when I was little, so I can't call these my first, but they might be ...)
• Got up at 5:15 Saturday morning and rode my bike just over 72 miles
• Had dinner at AJ's house for her sister's going-off-to-OU (smart girl!) party
• Went country dancing in my new cowboy boots with AJ, her mom and sister, and 18 billion of her sister's friends
• Hung out with AJ and a few friends after dancing -- and went to bed at 4 a.m. (remember when I said I woke up that day) (I did take an hour-long nap once I got home from cycling, but still!)
  
• I skipped church to sleep in. I needed it. I don't even remember the last time I slept past 9:30 (if that).
  
• Hung out at the pool with Heather and Elle for several hours (Long enough for me to get a little pink. Oops! I thought we were only going to be out there for an hour, so I didn't wear sunscreen.)
• Went to dinner with Brit to catch up on life over margaritas

I was also pet-sitting a coworker's dog, who managed to pee all over my carpet so many times I lost count, so I was going all over my apartment with carpet cleaner all weekend. That was fun.

Anyway, I did manage to upload some pictures tonight, which made me realize something really cool that I never blogged about that happened a few weeks ago.

While s was on her Tour o' Tejas with her boyfriend, she swung through the Dallas area, so we met up for some ice cream. It's definitely interesting meeting a blogger. You know so much about the ins and outs of their lives -- and they know so much about yours -- that it's weird to finally meet them in person. Will it be awkward? Will you have anything to say to each other? Will they be at all like they are in their blog? Will they be a serial killer?

Lucky for me, s turned out to not be a murderer, and our little ice cream date wasn't awkward at all! I swear, from the moment we got out of our cars, we were chatting nonstop. We talked for over 2 hours before she had to leave to meet up with her boyfriend's family. We did manage to get a picture, though, and I definitely hope to meet her again in the future -- maybe even in her territory next time (which she mentioned a couple times is much cooler than Texas in July)!

















Aaaand while we're at it, pictures of AJ and me from Saturday night. Because I'm wearing the exact same shirt as I was three weeks ago when I took this picture with s. I swear I have other shirts.

















I had to get the boots too!

Turns out you CAN lose something you never had

I've spent the last three weeks since the 15k ramping up on my cycling. I've got a century ride (that's bikespeak for "I'm psycho enough to ride 100 miles in one day") coming up. It takes place just south of the Oklahoma/Texas border ... at the end of August. Appropriately enough, it's called the Ho.tter'N Hell Hundr.ed. (This ride is where Cam.elBaks were invented, people!)

Anyway, so I've been taking this training class to prepare for it. We have spin classes in a tiny room where the thermostat is set at 80 degrees. Considering there are low ceilings and about 30 people very strategically crammed into this room, it gets very warm in there after an hour of spinning.

We also spend our entire Saturday mornings riding an increased distance each week. It got up to 107 degrees during last week's 60-mile ride (OK, 58.2 miles).

One of my coworkers who'd taken the class before told me he lost about 10 pounds during the course of the class. I thought maybe I'd leave with a nice, flat stomach with awesome lines accentuating my abs -- just in time for K's R&R. I'd be OK with that.

What I've realized is happening instead, though, is a change that's not as welcome.

The majority of my skirts just aren't fitting right anymore. The waist still fits OK for the most part, which is weird. So they fit at the waist, but the skirt just hangs funny everywhere else. I noticed this when I started running more at the beginning of the summer, but since I've started cycling, the problem has gotten worse.

I've tried on skirts a few times at my favorite clothing stores. It's the same with them, though. Even when I try a size smaller, the skirts still look funny. I thought it was a fluke at first -- like maybe I'd just chosen styles with a funny cut -- but I'm afraid it's not the skirts.

This morning, I finally realized what's happening: I'm losing my butt!

I'm literally cycling my ass off.

This is why I'm hot

Once you get into cycling, you realize that very little of its culture fits in with the world beyond cycling. Things everyone else steers completely clear of are exactly what cyclists gravitate to. Perfect examples:

1. Spandex


2. Carbs


3. Sodium

The spandex is bad enough on its own, but leave it to cyclists to take it from bad to worst by padding the crotch.

We wear helmets that might make us look a little dorky, but they save our lives. We walk around with grease from the chains and dirt from the tires on our legs and hands. We drink pickle juice by the bottle.

We stand in line for porta potties, and because we don't have the luxury of "real" bathrooms, we can go hours and hours without washing our hands. We're lucky if we have hand sanitizer.

As if all of that didn't make us weird enough, we wind up with tan lines in the most random, hard-to-hide places.

(Note the shorts line AND sock line!)












(Also featuring two lines -- the gloves line and the participant bracelet line!)

(Note to self for next year: Don't forget to put sunscreen on the sides of your neck. The sun does actually hit there. And when you reapply sunscreen on your arms, legs and face later in the day, don't forget to reapply on your neck and your chest!)

I don't remember having this problem last year!

I swear, I absolutely cannot get enough to eat and drink since the bike ride started. Today was the first day since Saturday that my bladder hadn't woken me up exactly three minutes before my alarm was to go off (I think it was getting close, though)!

I drank 64 ounces of water before 1:00 this afternoon -- and that doesn't include the milk with my cereal this morning or the water I got from the food I ate through the day to that point.

Which brings me to the eating. I'm snacking constantly! I've been eating little snacks every 45 minutes to an hour. For the most part, they've been healthy (carrots, 90-calorie Special K bars, an orange, plain almonds), but still!

I talked to Intense Co-Worker today, and he's doing the same thing. In fact, College Friend, AJ and I were talking this weekend about how much more we've all been eating since we started training for the ride. Before AJ said something, I had thought maybe I was just going through a hungry phase. I joked that it's a good thing K isn't here because I'd be freaking out and thinking I needed to get a pregnancy test. Since that's physically impossible, I guess my metabolism is just in (insanely) high gear right now.

So today I've been eating every 45 minutes and running to the bathroom about every 30 (that much water will do that to you). I'm over halfway through my third 32-ounce bottle of water today, and it's not even 3 p.m. (Thank goodness I use a refillable water bottle!)

And guess what I need to go do again?!

"It's all downhill from here!"

The ride is over. I survived. I finished.

You can't tell from our chipper "Yay, we're starting!" picture, but the weather on Day 1 was miserable. It was about 50 degrees, and it was very windy. We had a headwind most of the day. My toes and fingers were frozen until almost 1:00 in the afternoon, when it finally started warming up. My fingers were also swollen from their role as shock absorbers for the vibrations of the handlebars from the bumps on the road.

When AJ and I left lunch together, several people assured us, "It's all downhill from here!" They lied. Thankfully, though, just a few miles from the finish line that day, the quality of the road was awesome. It was nice to finish up on smooth pavement.

Like last year, someone from our team had driven along the route for Day 1 and spraypainted silly motivational comments. My favorite was not far from Tex@s Motor Speedway, which was our finish line for day 1: "We're getting close (that's what she said)!!!" Hilarious!

When we turned into the speedway for the end of Day 1, we still had 3 miles to go around the track. After the entrance, we made a turn that again put us riding directly into the wind. It was a relief to be finished for the day. We had ridden just over 86 miles.

After hanging out in our team tent for a while, we headed to College Friend's house, where we stayed the night. She and her husband cooked us an amazing dinner, and we all stuffed our faces with grilled shrimp, grilled hamburgers, chips and guacamole, asparagus, and fresh strawberries. When I finished eating, I curled up into a content, exhausted ball on the couch. We were all chatting when all of a sudden my ringtone for K went off (since he calls from a call center, it's always the same number that shows up on my phone). I went from barely moving and being ready to fall asleep to skipping across the room to get my phone and then ran out of the room so I could talk to him. Everyone was laughing at me for the sudden giddiness that had completely woken me up.

I was able to talk to K for about 20 minutes. I filled him in on Day 1, and he wished me luck for Day 2. After our phone call, I headed back to the living room. Everyone was tired, so we all got ready for bed and passed out after a few minutes. It was only 9:00!

We woke up at 5 a.m. for Day 2. Since the day before had been so miserably cold, I put on a thermal shirt under my jersey. College Friend had a windbreaker she let me take as well. Our other friend had an extra set of arm warmers for AJ. We were all set to ride through the cold.

Which is why the weather on Day 2 was gorgeous. There was hardly any wind, and the temperature was much warmer.

We got to the speedway about an hour before the start that day. We ate breakfast and stopped by the real bathroom to spoil ourselves before spending the day waiting in line for porta potties again. We filled our water bottles, aired our tires and then climbed on our bikes to begin the final 74 miles of the ride. As you can imagine, it was extremely uncomfortable to be sitting on that hard little seat again so soon. Thankfully, about 10 or 15 minutes into Day 2, your rear end gets numb enough that the soreness is no longer an issue.

AJ and I got off to a great start. We stopped briefly at the first rest stop, just long enough for AJ to stand in line for a porta potty and for me to fill up on oranges, a protein bar and some Gatorade. We got back on the road and got into such a good groove that we skipped the next rest stop and drove through lunch at 9:30. As we rode straight through the lunch stop, the volunteers directing us on our path said, "It's all downhill from here!"

Again, liars! We hit quite a few hills. None of them were particularly memorable or tough, but it was just hill after hill -- and they were all false summits, meaning there was no nice downhill slope to reward us for topping the hills. My technique for the hills is the same as it was last year: I pedaled up them pretty quickly (for a hill) to get them over with. The slower you pedal, the harder you have to work and the more it burns (and for longer). I tended to pass people on the uphill, only to have them pass me on the downhill, since many of them were bigger than me, resulting in more momentum on the downhill slopes.

When I got to the next rest stop after lunch, I was exhausted. I called my dad and told him I thought I was about to die, and I kind of wanted to. I talked to him for about five minutes as I waited for AJ to reach the rest stop. Once she did, I walked over to the food and drinks. When I saw what they had to offer us, I immediately felt rejuvenated!

The rest stop had fresh PINEAPPLE!! My favorite! AND they had pickles (I know they don't go together, but I enjoyed them both anyway!)! I ate bananas and pickles and pineapple and canteloupe. I filled up on Gatorade, and I even drank a couple cups of this yummy pineapple-cherry drink they had (with the fruit in it!).

AJ and I took our refreshments to a grassy area and sat down on the ground. We relaxed and enjoyed the soothing tropical music coming from the food area. We even decided to lie down for awhile. I was at that rest stop for over an hour, and I really think I owe at least some of my finish to this stop. It was amazing.

A couple of friends of mine from work caught up with us before we left the rest stop, and the four of us set out on the rest of the ride together. One of them is pretty intense with his cycling, so he and I rode ahead, and the other co-worker hung back to ride with AJ.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of me riding on my own, then waiting at the rest stops first for Intense Co-Worker, then AJ and the other co-worker. Many times, I wanted to just ride ahead and finish, but I waited. As much as I wanted to get to the finish line and be done, I still wanted to cross the finish line with AJ as well since we'd trained together and I'd convinced her to join our team.

Day 2 is the hillier day, so my legs were burning quite a bit. After I climbed my most-hated hill (this picture does it NO justice, and you can't see the similar hill -- another false summit -- that you climb just a quarter of a mile or so before this). At the rest stop after the Hill From Hell, AJ noticed a neat rainbow halo that circled completely around the sun.

After the halo rest stop, we had one of the most (if not the most) notorious hills in the entire course -- a gently sloping hill that left you climbing around corkscrew turns for over 2 miles. Everyone talked it up just as much as they did last year. I was worried I'd have more trouble with it this year and that my memories hadn't given it enough credit. The hill was no cakewalk, but just like I expected, the burn in my quads on that hill just didn't quite match the torturous burns of the steep hills we'd already climbed.

After that hill, we stopped at our last rest stop before the finish line. I waited for five minutes for Intense Co-Worker to catch up. AJ and Other Co-Worker took another 10 or 15. It turned out they'd had some technical issues with Other Co-Worker's cycling shoe. When we finally set out to complete the final 9 miles of the ride, we passed a cop who was directing traffic in an intersection. We said thanks as we rode by. He nodded back at us and called out, "It's all downhill from here!"

Thankfully, we knew better. In addition to a couple minor hills and a short, steep climb through a neighborhood, we still had the steep final climb that waited for us a mere quarter of a mile from the finish line in downtown Fort Worth. We all made it up just fine. Intense Co-Worker and I waited for AJ and Other Co-Worker to catch up. When they topped the hill, AJ was crying. I think all the frustration, burning thighs, emotion and relief of finally being done finally caught up to her. I had cried a bit at the end of the ride last year, so I could understand.

The four of us spread out across the road so we could all cross the finish line together. The announcer called out AJ's name as we crossed and told her to wave to the crowd. I thought it was neat that they had chosen her, since the other three of us had all done the ride before. She was the only first-timer with us.

We didn't stick around downtown Fort Worth for long. After spending two days on a bike and burning 3,000 calories each day, we had some catching up to do. We each headed home and took showers, then met for dinner to stuff ourselves with calamari, salad, bread, pasta and sangria. We chatted about the ride and how relieved we were to be done with it. We talked about training and doing the ride again next year.

And we also happily talked about the fact that both our bikes will be collecting dust for at least a few weeks. We deserve a break!

Yes, I can still walk

I finished the ride. All 160 miles of it. (I seriously think they should change the name of the ride if they're going to throw 10 additional miles at us like that.) I'm not even kidding, my jeans were a little tight on my thighs today. I guess a weekend on a bike will do that to you.

I've started my post (with pictures!) to tell you about the ride, but I'm afraid I'm too tired to really do it all justice. I'll do my best to finish (and post!) it tomorrow.

For now, it's bedtime!

Next time I blog, I might not be able to walk

Tomorrow is my big bike ride. AJ and one of my college friends who joined our team are staying the night with me tonight, so I spent all day working from home and doing things like shredding papers and organizing closets, in addition to the standard dusting, vacuuming and doing laundry. I also got some paint and touched up my living room walls, since I repainted a few weeks ago and had some areas I need to fix. I can't have my friends coming to my apartment for the first time and thinking my closets are messy or my paint job is awful!

So now I'm just waiting for the weekend to start. We have a ride dinner tonight, and we'll get up super early tomorrow to start our first 75! Eek!!!

The bike training continues

At the end of last week, I was excited to realize that my weekend was mostly clear. It looked as though I'd have plenty of free time to relax and enjoy myself. As usual, that changed pretty quickly but who am I to turn down nice invitations?

Friday night I left work just a tiny bit earlier than usual, but it was nice. I felt like laying around and doing nothing, but since I'd skipped the gym that Thursday night to hang out with ER and stuff my face with enchiladas and margaritas, I was really going back and forth on whether or not I should be a couch potato. I kept thinking, "I'm going to ride my bike 29 miles tomorrow. I can be lazy two nights in a row." I started looking for a good movie on TV when I somehow I managed to accidentally change to The Sweetest Th!ng. It took just about two minutes of watching Cameron D!az and Chr!stina Applegate prance around in their half-shirts with their amazingly flat stomachs to make me literally say out loud, "Fine!" and head to the gym. I got in some good cardio and an abs circuit. Score!

I did my 29-mile ride again on Saturday. This week, a girl who was on the ride for the first time wound up riding next to me and striking up a conversation. AJ and I became fast friends and rewarded ourselves with a pizza lunch after the ride was over. We made plans to ride together on Sunday.

Once I got home, I still felt like being outside because the weather was so gorgeous. I called Topeka, and we decided to lie out for a little while by her pool. Unfortunately, it was after we had spent our hour outside that I realized I'd gotten a bit too much sun on my bike ride that morning. I had managed to give myself a pretty awesome(ly bad) farmer's tan where my cycling shorts (which hit at mid-thigh) and my jersey (NOT sleeveless) had covered my skin. So sexy.

That night, I headed back to Topeka's for dinner. She has a younger sister who has had some tough times lately. The sister is in a treatment program here in Dallas right now, and she's staying with Topeka and her husband until it's over. Well, Topeka's sister invited a group of her friends over for dinner on Saturday night, and Topeka invited me to join them. She brought it up a few times, so I accepted. I hadn't realized that the friends Topeka's sister had invited were all people she'd met at the psych ward. That made for an interesting evening. All these three women (two of whom were at least 15 years older than us) talked about all night were what meds they were on, how expensive the meds are, how good a drink sounded, and about other patients seeking treatment. One of the friends was kind enough to change the subject from meds long enough to tell Topeka and I we're both too young to be married. Needless to say, that was an interesting dinner.

Sunday morning I went to church. In the afternoon, I went to the bike shop and bought myself some serious cycling pedals -- the ones you clip into and have special shoes for. The bike shop guy who sold me my bike over a year ago has been trying this whole time to get me to try the clips, but I had always been weary, especially with my knee problems. Seeing my new riding buddy's shoes, though (so cute!), is what finally convinced me. I'm such a girl ...




















After I got all fixed up with my new gear and had a quick lesson to learn to properly use the pedals & clips, I met up with AJ to ride about 20 miles. We talked the whole time, which made it go by much faster. I really like her a lot. I even convinced her to join the team I'm on in the M$150.

As soon as I got in my car after we finished riding, K called me. He's doing well. He had a couple of exciting things he got to do recently, which I'm sure was a nice change of pace for him. We caught each other up on what's new in our lives, and we talked about how ready we both are for September to be here. I did tell K about the dream I'd had that morning as well, which made him more ready for that visit. :)

Sunday night, I'd planned on going to the gym, but I skipped it. I was tired. I got a care package ready for K and straightened up around my apartment. Before I knew it, I was up later than I'd intended to be. It's always amazing how packed my weekends wind up getting.

Even though it wasn't quite lazy and relaxing, I felt good about last weekend. It was really great and unexpected to have made a new friend, and it was nice to have spent so much time outside in such beautiful weather. New friend, great weather and cute new shoes? What more could a girl want?!

That's just swell(ed)

Last weekend was yet another where I was constantly going, going, going. Friday after work, I headed to Fort Worth to meet my old roommate, who was in town from OKC for a conference. We went out for dinner and drinks and were able to catch up on things. It was the first time possibly since I graduated college that we'd gotten to hang out just the two of us, and it was great. I miss her!

I had to get up early the next day, so we called it a night before midnight, which was awesome. I got up at about 8 the next day to ride in a cycling group. The MS150 is only three weeks away, so I had to get some good riding time in. I went on a 20-mile ride, and I was doing great. I was in the very front of our group with three or four guys. I was riding along just fine when I switched gears and managed to pop my chain off. I pulled to the side of the road, and the guys I was riding with rode on, unaware of what had happened. It was no big deal, though, since we were with a big group. I knew several packs were behind us, and someone in those groups would be able to help me out.

I stood patiently on the side of the road. I tried fixing my chain myself, but I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. I was worried I'd mess it up more than fix it, so I decided to wait for someone who knew what they were doing and could hopefully explain it to me so I could get myself out of this situation next time.

Well, the next group to ride past me was a group of 6 or 7 men. And they all really did just ride past me. "Awesome! Thanks for your help! Real chivalrous there!" I called after them.

I decided I'd have to be more vocal with the next big bunch of people. When the next group, which was probably about 15 or so cyclists, passed me, I yelled out, "Does anyone know how to fix a chain?" Everyone ignored me. I stood in disbelief. Jeremy called me right then (even when I'm on my bike, my phone is right by me in case K calls). I answered my phone since I was waiting for the next group, which was several hundred yards away from me. As I explained to Jeremy what was happening, I found myself on the verge of tears. If no one would help me fix my chain, what was I supposed to do? I was almost 10 miles away from my car. I'd either have to ask Jeremy to come get me and pray that my bike would fit in his car, since I certainly couldn't leave it, or I'd have to walk my bike 10 miles. Neither sounded good to me.

I hurried to get off the phone so I could catch the next group. As they rode past me, I called out, "Can someone please help me?" A man on a bicycle built for two said to me, "Do you need some help?"

I was relieved someone had finally answered. "Yes! Please!"

I was even more shocked when the man responded: "Sorry! Can't stop." Was he kidding me?! Why had he even bothered asking?

The eyes were just starting to spill over in frustration when I noticed a cyclist had turned around to come back to me. She asked if I needed help. "I guess no one else was gonna stop," she said. She told me she didn't know how to fix a chain, but she couldn't just ignore me. She'd try to help -- and she did. She fixed it.

Just then, the final stragglers of our group slowly rode past with one of the leaders of the group. He asked if everything was OK. I told him yes, finally, thanks to the woman beside me. I told the leader how everyone else had ignored me. The leader told me it wasn't really their fault, since they're not supposed to stop during the ride. He said it could be dangerous if three or four people tried to stop at the same time (hello? that's what hand signals are for!). I told the leader he didn't have to worry about that on this ride because everyone who was on it that day was a jerk except for the woman who helped me. (And I meant it!)

Anyway, so the rest of the ride went on without incident. We stopped halfway through to get the whole group together again. The leader asked if anyone was interested in riding 9 additional miles. I figured if I have to ride 150 in three weeks, I better be able to handle 29 right now, so I went. We had a headwind for most of the ride, and there were a few hills on our route as well. It was tough, since I'm not really where I should be training-wise. All of us on the ride were crawling along by the end of it, but we finished. Hopefully the ride will be easier (and free of bike malfunctions!) when I do it again next weekend.

After I was finished riding, I immediately headed to a yummy burger place so I could scarf down a huge cheeseburger and fries. I had just enough time to take it home and enjoy it there before I had to hop in the shower and run to Bed Bath & Beyond. Then, I headed to Miss Heather's wedding shower. It was relaxing and fun, and I managed to stuff myself with a ton of snacks, food and cake.

I headed home for a bit before a 6:30 haircut appointment, and of course as soon as I had pulled into my parking lot at 5:45ish, the hairstylist called to ask if I could come early.

When my haircut was finished, I felt bad for having Piper cooped up all day. I took her for a walk at this nice park near my apartment. We walked 2.25 miles. Then, I got some really great pictures of her that I'll have to post tomorrow.

I came home at about 8 p.m. and laid down on the couch. I wound up falling asleep. At 11, I got up and got ready for bed, then went to sleep.

Sunday morning, I got up early to go to a class at church for people who are interested in becoming members. I haven't decided if I'm going to join or just keep attending as a very (very) regular visitor. (Partly because I'll only live here for a year longer.) I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to go, though, in case I decide I do want to join. Plus, the class teaches more about the church in general, which was the clencher in my decision to go.

After church, I came home and did a few things around my apartment. I took a 40-minute nap and then did more things around my apartment. Then, at about 5, I headed to Jeremy's to run 5 miles with him. We'd run the same path last Thursday, but we'd finished in 53 minutes (almost 54, actually), which was over a 10-min. mile. He wanted to beat that time, so we picked up our speed. Early into the ride, my calves were feeling much more tired than usual. I wanted more than anything to stop running. I tried to think of an excuse to quit. It wouldn't have done any good, though -- my car keys were in Jeremy's apartment, which he had the key for. What would I do, run back to his place and sit on the steps?

So I kept going, even though I didn't want to. By the end of the 5 miles, I was exhausted, but I had finished it. We had shaved almost 7 minutes off of our previous time. Those 7 minutes made a world of difference! Thursday, when we had finished, I felt fine. I wasn't out of breath, I had enjoyed the run, and I felt like I could have easily run farther. At the faster pace, though, I was gasping for air by the end (especially since we picked up the pace a bit more at the very end) and felt I couldn't have run any farther. I'd hated the entire run.

In one hour from the time we finished our run, I stretched, headed to W@l-Mart for grocery shopping for the week, headed home, took the world's quickest shower (had to hold off on washing my hair for later that night), gathered my laundry and laundry soap, took Piper out, and headed back to Jeremy's for dinner. I did laundry while we ate and watched the movie I Am Legend. It was all right, but not really my kind of movie.

The movie finished right about the same time as my laundry (10:30 p.m.), so I headed home and started getting a care package together for K, since I hadn't had time on Saturday. I sent him the crappiest care package every last week. It just had a bunch of snack food and a quickly scribbled, boring letter. This one had to be better.

I baked him some peanut butter cookies and wrote him a long letter. I added some new pictures and included some other snacks and things he'd requested I send. By the time I'd done all that, changed my sheets and put my laundry away, it was 3 a.m. I rushed through my real shower (washing my hair this time) and got ready for bed. At 3:30 a.m., I was finally able to go to sleep.

Sometime while I was baking last night, I noticed my left knee was swollen. It didn't feel like I'd injured it, but I could definitely feel when I put my weight on it that it was swollen. I was relieved when I woke up this morning to find that my knee was back to normal. The last thing I need through all this stuff I've got coming up (the MS150, a 15k) is a messed-up knee.

Only the swelling returned at work today. I have no idea what the deal is, but my best guess is that I just put too much pressure on it this weekend. A 29-mile bike ride followed a few hours later by a 2.25-mile walk and then a 5-mile run the next day is a liiiiiiiiitle bit more than the normal amount.

I'm thinking I'll take it easy on my knee for the next couple days. I'm hoping that will help the situation. Heck, even if a little rest doesn't help my knee, I'm pretty sure it'll help the rest of my body!

A lot of stuff in very little time

Oh my gosh, I've been so busy lately! After one of my last posts, I got an awesome anonymous tip to check out Costa Rica for our vacation. I looked more into it, and I totally want to go there now. Since K and I went sky diving and swam with jellyfish!) in Hawaii last year, I want to do something neat and out of the ordinary on this vacation as well. In Costa Rica, there are two such activities we could do together: 1) river rafting (on fairly calm waters, so it's athletic but not quite so life-threatening, since I'm not the strongest swimmer) and 2) rainforest canopy tours. The second one is the one I'm most excited about. I don't think I know anyone who's ever ziplined through a rainforest before. It sounds scary, but awesome, and I am so game! Hopefully I can talk to K about it soon to see what he thinks.

Friday, my brother was in town for work for the race this weekend at Te.xas M.otor Speed.way. He was able to get my dad and his girlfriend passes to get into the pits all weekend, so they were down on Friday for that. I was jealous. They got to meet a lot of drivers. That night, I met my brother, dad and his girlfriend for dinner. With my brother being in North Carolina now, the four of us can't get together like that very often, so it was nice.

I intended to get up at 7:30 Saturday morning to officially begin my training for the M$150, which is one month from last weekend. I managed to turn off my alarm, though, I guess, because I woke up at 8:40, which was when I was supposed to be leaving. I needed to do several things for my bike before I could ride, so I skipped out on the scheduled ride. I went to go ride on a big trail on my own, but I realized when I was halfway there that I just didn't have time. I settled for a short ride around my neighborhood, and then I came home and got cleaned up.

I left my apartment and headed toward Te.xas M.otor Speed.way, giving myself plenty of time to get through traffic that wound up being nonexistent. I was supposed to pick my brother up at 1:30 to drive him to OK. He got out a bit late, so at about 2:00, we were on our way. He had a couple friends at the dirt track he used to race at back home, and they'd told him he could drive their cars that night. It had fallen through a couple days before, but my brother wanted to race so badly (He kept saying that April 8 would mark two years since he last raced) that he was going to OK just in case someone would let him drive their car in the races that night.

Go figure, no one offered. I was really sad for my brother because I know he's been aching to race again. It was great to see his face after the races, though, when one of the drivers looked at my brother, pointed at the car and said, "Get in." He got to drive around the track for a few laps, and when he was finished, he sat in the car for a couple minutes talking to us. It was obvious he wasn't ready to get out. I was glad for him that he was at least able to drive again, even if it was after the races were over.

By then, it was after 11 p.m. We headed back to the house and talked to Dad and his girlfriend for a bit before leaving after midnight to head back to Dallas. My brother had to leave with the team for the race track at 6:30 Sunday morning. I got him to his hotel at about 3. By the time I got home and got ready for bed, it was 4 a.m. I was exhausted.

I still made it up for church on Sunday, and I was really glad I did. The sermon was great, and there were two baptisms -- a baby and a grown man. I hadn't seen an adult baptized at this church before. I've got more to blog about that later.

Sunday afternoon, I was able to get out on my bike. I rode about 20 miles. It was uncomfortable. I have to get used to that seat again! That night, Jeremy and I got a good workout in too.

This morning, I mailed a care package off to K since I hadn't had time to make and send one on Saturday. I felt bad because I just kind of threw a bunch of snacks in, scribbled a letter and shipped it off. I've sent him a care package every week of this deployment. I almost skipped a week, but I felt really guilty, so I rushed to get one to him. It's just that that's all I can do for him as a wife right now. Surely I can find some time each week to make him a thoughtful package to brighten his day.

I stood in line for half an hour to mail the package this morning. When I got to work and checked my email, there was a message from the lieutenant colonel's wife. K's base got attacked again on Sunday. There were many injuries, and one soldier was killed. None of them were from K's battalion, but still ...

This is the second time in less than two months that K's base has been attacked. Logic says that it'll happen again. Which is scary and stressful.

I know it won't do me any good to panic or freak out about this. Still, my mind was on this all day.

K was lucky enough to not be one of the ones who was injured, and I know he's OK. I'll still feel better once I hear from him, but I have no idea when that'll happen. It could be tonight, since I haven't heard from him since this time last week, or it could be days from now if the military has blocked communication for rumor control.

I was able to get to the gym tonight and then run 4 miles with Jeremy. It felt good to be doing something physical to work out frustration, clear my head and benefit from the release of some much-needed endorphins.

After my workout and the rush and stress of these last few days, I'm also in some serious need of sleep. Hopefully I'll have some updates tomorrow because K calls me tonight. Fingers crossed.

Things are picking up AND looking up

I have been feeling so much better the last couple days -- thank goodness! I realized yesterday that I have a lot of fun things coming up, and some of them have just come up over the last couple of days.

I'm going to go riding on Saturday to officially start training for the MS150 again. I wasn't looking forward to it as much because I wasn't going to have a riding partner this year with K being gone. Riding it with him is part of what made the experience so great.

My new friend Topeka, though, is really thinking about riding it with me, which I'm really excited about. Plus, one of my old roommates keeps talking about doing it as well. I've been feeling all along like she'll wind up backing out due to money, but so far she still says she's doing it -- she just hasn't registered (or rented a bike ...).

I decided I wanted to do a 10-miler in June or July, so I started looking those up. I found one in July that sounds like fun. I emailed the info to my dad's girlfriend, Jeremy and Topeka, and they're all in for it! A couple more of Jeremy and Topeka's co-workers who ran the 5k with us on St. Patrick's Day are coming as well. I'm excited! (Yes, I still hate running, but it's good for me, and I'm in it for the fun time with friends and the ability to say I've run 9.3 miles at one time. If I actually go through with it -- which I will -- I might then be insane enough to do a marathon just to say I've done that too. Maybe that's how people get into them.)

Not to stop the physical feats with May's 150-mile bike ride and July's 10-mile run, at the end of August, there's the Hott.er Than Hel.l 100, which I'm thinking about subjecting myself to as well.

And then K comes in September, so we'll take it easy and enjoy ourselves (but we'll go running and work out together while he's here).

Aside from the Feat.s of St.rength (10 points to whoever's cool enough to get that reference!), I've got a few getaways coming up that I'm excited about too. I'd hoped to do something cool for Memorial Day. I have Army-significant-other friends in Miami, Daytona and Orlando, so I had thought it would be cool if we got together down there that weekend for a little mini-reunion. I miss seeing them all, and Memorial Day would be perfect because since it's a holiday, no one would have to worry about losing a vacation day so we can all save them for our guy's R&R.

Well, yesterday one of the significant others who lives in New York emailed me to see if I'm interested in a little Memorial Day trip to Daytona to visit our friend. Of course my answer was, "Heck yes I am!" I'm really excited about that.

And the very next weekend I'm hoping to make it to Miss Heather's wedding in Tahoe. There may or may not be a little layover in California on my way, so I'm excited about that.

As if all that wasn't enough, today is the four-month mark of the deployment! It's really going quickly -- thank God!

And if that wasn't enough, I've scheduled my fourth massage appointment for Saturday afternoon. In addition to that (I know!), I'm going dress shopping for the Dallas wedding on Saturday, and one of my co-workers wants to come with me! Yay!

As if heading back to Texas wasn't hard enough already

Friday night when K got home from work, we went out to dinner. I love it when he's in town on a weekday, or I'm visiting him on a weekday. We can see what it's like to just come home from work to see the other there. We can figure out what we want to do for dinner, and just enjoy each other's company for the rest of the night. It's pretty awesome, and we can't help but talk about how wonderful it'll be when that's a daily thing for us.

Saturday, we both slept in and were lazy until the early afternoon. After that, we headed out of town with some friends to see The Bourne Ultimatum and eat at Johnny Carinos (my favorite!). The movie was awesome. It really tied a lot of things together from the first two. The action scenes were great, and there were a few things I'd worried they might do in the third movie that they (thankfully) didn't. I loved pretty much everything about it. They're all three such great movies.

We were supposed to go to a bar after dinner and the movie, but one of K's friends who had ridden with us wanted to go to bed. K was disappointed, especially since he worked straight through last weekend and will be going through training starting next weekend and going through to September. It was like this was his chance to go out, cut loose and have fun, and his buddy, who seems to get less fun and more under the control of his girlfriend every day, was too tired to go. At 10:30 on a Saturday.

K and I went bike riding on Sunday afternoon. We only rode 16 miles, but they were 16 very hilly miles, and in the early afternoon in the Louisiana summer heat. It was a nice ride, but we were exhausted after all the hills. After we finished, we devoured a pepperoni pizza, and it was time for me to drive back to Tejas.

Getting ready to go proved to be pretty hard. As I was loading my car, a red wasp started chasing me. I ran inside and asked K if it was on my back. He said no, and he went outside to investigate. I wasn't lying or even exaggerating, as it turned out, because when I opened the door just a minute after K had gone outside, the wasp was at the door. "Close it, close it!" K yelled. He smashed it with his hat when it finally landed, but we didn't see where it went.

I went back in K's apartment to grab my purse, and when I opened the door again, I was still looking out for the wasp, just in case. I was surprised to see something moving on the ground, right on the other side of K's doorframe. It was a small snake. I called K over to look at it. He told me it was just a garden snake, and he scooped it into his hat and put it in the grass.

We said our goodbyes, and I started my drive back to Dallas. There's a train track not far from K's apartment, and when I got to the track, there was a train blocking it. Seven minutes later, the train was still there. I had to take a 15-minute detour to get around the train, but when I passed the tracks on the other side, I could see the train was still sitting there.

My drive went smoothly until I was just about 40 minutes from home. I hit some construction, and I crawled along from 11:30 until just about midnight. I didn't get home until after 12:30 because of that.

I'm sad I won't get to see K for another month, but I'm definitely not sad I won't have to make that drive again for the next few weeks!

I guess my orthopedic surgeon really did know what he was talking about

I went to Louisiana this weekend for really the first time since K and I got engaged. I hadn't seen any of our friends there, so when we found out there was going to be a party at one of K's friends, we were game (not that we wouldn't have been anyway).

We were hanging out and having a great time. K and I were hanging out in the living room on the couch, and for some reason I got up to go into the kitchen. I rounded a corner and almost ran right into a couple of K's friends who were coming in to the living room. My right knee buckled, and I immediately went back to the couch to sit down.

This was the same knee that was really hurting me on day two of the bike ride. It's the same knee I had surgery on before my freshman year in high school, and the same one I've had trouble with so many times since.

I'd just grown so quickly (if you're short, here's one reason you can be happy for it!) that the muscles in my knee hadn't kept up. After I had my knee surgery, my orthopedic surgeon had told me that I'd need to do knee exercises for the rest of my life. I just figured the muscles around my kneecap were late bloomers. The thought of myself at 80 doing these stupid knee exercises seemed pretty ridiculous, so I decided I'd break out the weights whenever my knee started feeling weird.

What that really means is that I just never do the exercises -- even when my knee does feel weird. And in the case of the 150-mile bike ride, I didn't want to ride 120 miles and let a stupid knee stop me from completing those final measly 30 miles.

In the days after the ride when I noticed how much stronger my legs looked, I figured I might even have built up the muscles around my knees from doing that. After all, cycling isn't supposed to be hard on your knees since you're not putting the pressure and stress on them that things like running can do. I wear a brace when I run for that very reason, but I thought cycling was okay. I also thought since I was being more active, my muscles -- all of them -- would be more built up anrd I wouldn't have to worry so much.

I guess I was wrong. And I guess if I want to keep doing things like work out and ride bikes, I'm going to have to spend a little extra time working out my knees as well.

I'm pretty sure I could choke a bear with my legs now

This Saturday was one of those perfect weekend days -- it's just a little drizzly and cooler outside, and you feel so grateful that it's a Saturday so you can sleep in and then lie around all day in your pjs or sweatpants watching movies.

I, however, decided to start my day at 5:15 a.m. K and I left my apartment to head to Frisco so we could start our weekend o' cycling at 7 a.m. It was the weekend of our big bike ride. Yes, that one. K and I were amazed to see how many people were participating in the ride. Seeing 3,000 people lining up with their bikes and sporting those sexy padded shorts is pretty overwhelming.

The ride started right at 7. Our team was one of the first ones to start. As K and I mounted our bikes and began peddling, I couldn't help but think about how early in the morning it was to be riding a bike and -- the worst part -- how much longer I'd be on said bike. My legs were sore just thinking about it.

K and I had a good pace going, and we were passing quite a few people. Not too far into the ride, we started seeing bikers on the side of the road fixing chains and tires. A coworker just six or seven feet in front of us was riding along when we all heard a loud Pffffffffffffffft! and he pulled to the side of the road to fix his seriously flat tire.

We all rode through town after town, taking up one lane of a one-way, two-lane road at times, and at others, riding on the shoulder trying not to get hit by the cars that passed us.

Before we knew it, K and I were hitting the first rest stop. It was only about 9 miles into the ride. We weren't ready to stop. We decided we'd hit the next rest stop, thinking we'd do every other one since they're each about 10 miles apart.

Soon, we started passing riders who had crashed. One woman was lying on the side of the road with several other cyclists around her. One person was holding her head, and one of the medic teams specially for the event was gathering around her. It was scary to see something like that, since you knew it could just as easily have been you on the ground.

When K and I hit the first rest stop, we drank cup after cup of Powerade and water. There were halved bananas and orange slices that we gobbled up too. There were protein bars, pretzels and pickle juice. There was a medic table with different creams cyclists swore by. The best item at that rest stop was the lip balm. They had it on little clips so you could take a tube and keep it handy to use throughout your ride. After waiting in line for longer than I ever thought I'd have to wait to use a porta potty, K and I were back on the road.

We were still making really good time when we got to lunch. It had started raining lightly, so we had spots of mud all over our arms, legs and jerseys. Our bikes were filthy. We were starving. We barely talked during lunch, since our focus was on scarfing down our food to fill our stomachs. We decided to rest and let our food settle. While we were doing that, it started raining a bit harder.




A small portion of the riders who happened to be at the lunch stop at the same time as us.









Check out the line for the porta potty!!!






When we got back on the road, the rain slowed us down a little more. There were more cyclists on the side of the road from crashes. More and more medic vans were passing us with their lights on. At one point, just about 30 feet in front of us, a cyclist went flying over his handlebars. K and I stopped when we reached him to make sure he was okay. He was lying face-down in the middle of the road. His teammates he had been riding with were saying his name and asking if he was okay. When he finally answered, they helped him roll over. He seemed like he was going to be okay, and since K and I could do nothing to help, we rode on.

We were definitely having a much harder time than before lunch. We'd been cruising along before, but giving our muscles that break made our bodies not so eager to cooperate with the physical torture again. And there was also the wind -- for some reason, Mother Nature had decided to punish us for stopping to rest and eat by giving us a horrible headwind to ride into. It made it especially fun to go up hills.

We rode and rode and rode, and I was getting pretty tired. We had passed the point where it made sense to stop, so I kept going, even though I had gone into the weekend saying I'd be proud of myself if I rode 75 miles. (I thought that was a reasonable expectation for myself, since I hadn't even owned a bike five weeks before the ride -- and since I'd only ridden my new bike four or five times.)

When I could see the lights and the grandstands of Texas Motor Speedway, the finish line for the day, I felt my eyes tearing up from the utter relief it was almost over. As we turned onto the road leading straight into TMS, several emotions and the utter exhaustion started to hit me. I thought about the entire day, feeling relief and thankfulness that K and I hadn't been one of the injured cyclists on the side of the road, counting down the moments until I could get off the uncomfortable seat for the rest of the day, and feeling proud of myself for completing the entire route for the day. I was hungry and ready to get off my bike, but I also couldn't help but think of the whole reason for the ride. We had done a good thing to help support people who are affected by multiple sclerosis. We still had a long way to go, but it was nice to know we'd done it all for such a good cause.

K and I made our way to our team tent. It was only about 1:30. We'd eaten lunch at around 10:45, so we were ready for more food. We had a burger and some beer, which tasted awesome. We hung around the tent for a few hours so we could be in our team picture, and then we headed back to our hotel, where we immediately crashed for the night.







K and me at our team tent after riding the first 75 miles.










We got up even earlier -- 4:15 -- on Sunday morning. I was not at all excited at the thought of spending another several hours on my bicycle. I didn't know if my rear end could handle that -- padded bike shorts or not!

We arrived back at TMS by 5:30 for breakfast. We aired up our tires and lined up for a ride around the race track. We got to ride into the tunnel and everything. It was surprising to see how steep the track is on the turns. It looks quite a bit different from the stands and on tv!





Cyclists coming through the tunnels into TMS









K and me before starting our lap around the speedway










I look like a real cyclist!







I was glad to see that after about 10 minutes on my bike, I was numb enough that the seat wasn't as painful as I'd thought it would be. Starting off was definitely the hard part. K and I had decided to pace ourselves since we both had such a hard time after lunch. We thought if we took it easier through the morning, it would make the rest of the day much easier.

The morning went pretty well. It felt great outside, and although we had lots of hills, once we topped them we were always blessed with a rewarding downhill slope. We had some really pretty scenery, and it seemed like it was going to be a good day again.

And then we went to lunch. We made sure we didn't stop as long as we did the day before, since that's what killed us. We'd been warned by several riders who'd done the MS 150 before that the worst was yet to come. They weren't kidding. Again, we left lunch only to ride into a terrible headwind. We had several hills, but somehow none of them had downhill slopes. It was frustrating!

The absolute worst hill for K and I was the steepest hill on the ride. It hurt to climb that thing! People started getting off their bikes about 10 feet into it and walking the whole way up. I refused to get off my bike, since I wouldn't be able to honestly say I'd completed the whole thing and, dangit, if I'd come that far I was going to finish! At the top of that evil monster hill, there was a bank with an empty parking lot. Everyone who reached the top, whether through walking or riding, stopped at that parking lot to rest. It took too much out of us to continue without a break.

K and I had repeatedly been told about this one insanely long, awful hill. It was so bad, in fact, that they shortened the distance to the next rest stop because of it. At the last stop before it, everyone said, "It's only five miles to the next stop -- but there's a reason." One volunteer at the stop told K and me that the steep hill we'd thought was so difficult was nothing compared to this. "You won't even think about that hill after you climb this one," he said. He told us the hill we thought was so bad was the steepest on the route. The one we were about to try to face was not very steep, but it lasted 2 1/2 miles. There was nowhere to stop, since there was virtually no shoulder. The hill seems endless, we were warned. He told us to pace ourselves.

I was a bit nervous about what was coming up when K and I set out again. My method for hills had been to not slow down on them so I'd gain momentum and could get through it as quickly as possible. I'd lean down and put my hands on the bottom curve of my handlebars. I'd knock my gears down to one of the lowest -- if not the lowest -- ones, and I'd put my head down so the visor on my helmet would block all but what I really needed to see ahead of me so I could still ride safely. That way, I couldn't see the top of the hill and psyche myself out thinking it was closer than it was or realizing I had so much left to go.

This hill sounded like it was going to be awful. It's all anyone had talked about that day when we talked about the ride and what was left.

Not far from the rest stop, I saw a long, gradual hill in front of us. Again, there were riders walking up. I started to speed up to gain momentum. "Pace yourself, babe!" K called from behind me. This wasn't the hill, but I decided that was probably a good idea. I could see that this hill was a longer one. I climbed up slowly and steadily, and then our route turned left. The hill continued. It wasn't anything bad, it was just long.

When we finally finished, I turned to K and said, "Man, I'm really nervous about this hill." "Me too," he said. Not even a quarter of a mile later, we had hit the next rest stop. "Wait!" I said. "That means that was the hill!"

"No," K said. "It's supposed to be after this." I told K everyone had said it was on this route, and that's why we had a shortened ride to the rest stop. We had tackled the impossible hill with no problem -- to the point that we hadn't even realized that was the hill!

We were only 10 miles from the finish, so we didn't stop long. We were really tired, but obviously we were going to finish. The last part of the ride wasn't so bad for the majority. As we neared downtown Fort Worth, we had to climb up quite a hill that we were both cursing under our breath. K said whoever chose the route was evil for making us go over such a hill so close to the end.

The closer we got to the finish, we started seeing more people cheering us on. There were quite a few people lined up at the finish line yelling and waving for us. K and I were the only ones crossing at that time. We gave each other daps as we crossed under the "FINISH" banner.





K and me at the end of day two, finished with the 150






We had made it the full 150 miles. After two days straight of sitting on that seat, I was surprised at what muscles and areas I felt the most.

Obviously I was sore where I'd sat on the saddle. In fact, there were many times I couldn't tell if I needed to be worried about the line at the porta potties at the next stop or if I was just numb from being on the seat so long. My fingers were tingly thanks to pretty much constantly vibrating from all the bumps on the road. My right knee hurt, which worried me a little. The sorest of all, which I hadn't expected, was my back, just to the left of my spine and at the top of my shoulderblade.

When you're riding on a road bike, you're leaning down quite a bit. You have to be aware of what's going on around you and behind you, since there are hundreds of cyclists and cars sharing the road with you. You glance over your shoulder before you make almost any move to make sure you won't become someone's roadkill.

And speaking of roadkill, we saw plenty over the course of the weekend. I'd had no idea how many snakes there were in the Dallas area. At least I know a lot of them are dead.

Some funny things from our ride:

• K and I were discussing how sore we were on the seats. K was having a problem keeping things arranged in a comfortable way, if you will. He said to me, "Now I know the real reason Lance Armstrong only has one testicle!"
• At one point on day two, K and I managed to get in a line of several cyclists, one of whom was a woman wearing sky blue cycling shorts. Not to be rude, but K and I realized at a rest stop that this woman's butt was drooping in her lovely sky blue spandex shorts, which meant there was a lot squeezed into them. I had the displeasure of riding behind her on a portion of the route. I'm not kidding, her butt was rippling in her sky blue shorts. It was awful, and frankly, it was killing my motivation to continue. I tried looking above her, but her shorts were rippling enough that no matter where I looked in front of me, my eyes picked up the movement. I let the line go ahead of me, mainly because I was tired, but partly because I couldn't handle riding behind her anymore. When I caught back up to K later on, I barely got out, "Oh my gosh, did you see the woman in the ..." before he was finishing my sentence. "It was like staring at the sun!" he said.
• In a world where I hear so many people concerned with dieting and carbs, it was funny to be in an environment where people were picking up energy drinks and saying, "This thing doesn't have carbs! How am I supposed to get energy?" At rest stops, people would climb off their bikes and say, "I need carbs!" Cyclists were even reaching for foods that had the most carbs. It was kind of like a parallel universe.

The MS 150 was the most challenging athletic thing I've done in my life. I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing, I have to say. K and I did a great thing for a great cause, and we had a good time doing it.

I'm even already looking forward to next year.

Unlike Derek Zoolander, I CAN turn left. It's right that's the problem.

I can't believe how quickly you can fall behind on blogging. There's been a lot going on lately, wedding-planning-wise and other, and it's just a crazy time right now. Judging from the gaps between a lot of my regular reads' posts as well, I'm not the only one feeling that way.

Last week was a pretty slow week at work, which was awesome, since it gave me plenty of time to look around online for wedding stuff. I'd hoped to take off Friday, since K had a four-day weekend, but that didn't work out. He did make it in to Dallas Thursday night, so we went to lunch on Friday and he met several of my coworkers.

Friday night, we went out to dinner, then bought some champagne and headed back to my place. It was nice to have some relaxing time just the two of us. We started making some plans for the wedding, and it felt so good to finally be able to talk to him about our wedding and to be able to start putting a timeline on things.

We slept in on Saturday and had planned to get a few things done, but we just didn't want to get moving. We wound up hanging around my place all day in sweats and a t-shirt. Finally, at 7 p.m., I got in the shower so we could get ready to go out for dinner. We thought about going out after, but all my friends were busy or out of town, since it was Easter weekend. We had another night in, which was just fine.

Sunday, we went to church with ER. Her church is really pretty, and I wanted K to see it. Maybe it's a potential wedding ceremony church. After that, we went to lunch and then to get some training in for the 150-mile ride, which is less than a month away, by the way.

Before Sunday, I had yet to ride my bike at all. This meant I'd had no practice other than the quick ride we did around the back of the shop before we bought our bikes. I was scared and a bit shaky starting off our ride. We were riding around a really pretty lake with a great view of downtown. It was a bit cooler, but there were quite a few joggers, cyclists and others at the park. There were some big hills and some big curves, which made me very nervous. I was doing some serious braking on those, and K would say to me, "Stop using your brake!"

He'd ridden his bike several times -- both on his own and with one of his good friends, who just so happens to do triathlons (very well, I might add) and long bike rides pretty often. In fact, this guy travels all over the country doing triathlons and bike rides. (Freak!) So K was pretty much going from riding with Lance Armstrong to riding with a scared girl on her first ride without the training wheels.

It took us quite a while to go the 9 miles around the lake, but it was still pretty early when we had finished the trail. K had been pretty patient with me, but I could tell he was frustrated. We hadn't really gotten a workout in that round, so I suggested we go around again. Lucky for both of us, that lap went much better. We increased our time quite a bit, and I was getting less afraid on the hills. I was still braking, but not as much as before. K would ride in front of me, weaving his bike back and forth, but I was still not nearly ready to do that. Our speed averaged about 14 miles an hour, which isn't bad for a girl who just lost her training wheels.

Yesterday after work, I rode with four coworkers again. We went 22 miles. I was scared starting off again, but after about 10 minutes or so I was a little more comfortable with the ride. I even started getting more comfortable with left turns, although for some unknown reason, right turns still scare me.

I'm going riding tonight after work with another coworker. We'll probably do the same trail I did yesterday, so that'll be good. There are a couple of rides this weekend around Dallas, but I'm afraid I'll be doing things for the wedding, so I don't know that I'll make those. At least I'm getting rides in through the week.

I've decided that if I complete the first day of riding -- the first 75 miles -- I'll be happy and proud of myself for that. Riding 75 miles in one day is a pretty awesome feat for a girl who had never ridden a road bike four weeks before!