monday's ride

after a very jam packed and quite eventful weekend filled with drunken debauchery, dehydration, sun soaking, fun and no working out at all, i decided i should probably do something productive along the lines of an actual workout. early Monday morning i had a moment of insanity that has gone and fully bloomed in the pit of my psyche, making what i had previously viewed as the impossible into something that is really starting to resemble unbridled excitement. i have to be really really careful here as once i get something in my head, its damn near impossible to change my mind (AKA running the hilliest half around for my first half marathon in the midst of the most excruciating IT injury and then continuing to train and run my first marathon 3 months after that with the same excruciating pain). i am not sure how i happened to be so lucky as to have convinced BAM to take on this huge feat of being my coach (which he will now be referred to as CB or Coach Brian in this particular blog space) but i can only thank God he has been so nice to agree to take me on in achieving the craziness that is about to ensue. filling you in on the details too soon could jinx it, so i'll just keep it at this - i am going to be a VERY busy girl for the next couple of months and i'm looking forward to it with such enthusiasm that i could burst and get goosebumps just writing about it. this all assuming that my IT holds up and doesn't try to crawl up and suffocate me in my sleep for putting it through another torturous round of katie b antics. i really do think i can do anything...

wow, that got off the subject - i digress...so i left work and decided i was going to do the SDI course, leaving my place and heading in a round about way to add in mileage over to Canon where i would attempt to speed to Cabrillo. this is the first time i would be attempting to do this ride in the midst of rush hour traffic. although i should be considered at least a semi seasoned rider, i am still pretty shaky when it comes to riding by myself especially when it involves heavy traffic. i get really nervous and sort of tottery on my bike. i tend to make stupid mistakes which isn't the best course of action considering i am at the mercy of crazy California drivers who don't always have the utmost sympathy for the cyclists trying to share the road with them. but i pushed it out of my head, determined to get in this ride and just went. i was scared. i made two mistakes while in traffic that could have ended badly, berated myself for it but still kept going, telling myself that this was good, this was learning, this was what doing it and making it on my own was all about. and you know what? i loved it. i flew. okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration because i spent a good part of Canon in my smallest chain ring and easiest gear, but i wasn't there the entire time like i had been on my previous attempts. i even steadied myself in my big chain ring for a good portion of the ride and felt so great, so strong, so independent...so alive. i talked to Clark like i normally do and asked him to ride with me down the descents. i always picture myself with great big wings when i ask him to ride or run with me, like he's sitting or standing right behind me, really enjoying the ride, letting the wind blow right through us and howling like silly little kids having the time of our lives. i really yell it up on these down hills, so much so that i usually end it by laughing so hard at myself that i must regain composure at the end so i don't crash. its a silly, fantastically peaceful and unworldly joy i feel during these moments. this is probably why i love hills - even though going up them sucks, i get to ride down them with angel's wings.




the ride was great. i finished in about an hour. i don't know how far i went or what pace i kept, but it felt strong, determined, purposeful. all in all, it felt like love and what more could you ask for on a Monday evening heading into the night and the start of a new week?