Monday, July 13, 2009

Things That Almost Make Me Crash + Good Training Food

I am exhausted. I cannot believe I only have 2 more weeks to prepare for this ride. TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY I'll be an hour or so in to a 5+ hour day of biking - the first of five such days. That is terrifying.
This weekend I biked 42 miles on Saturday, and 38 on Sunday. On Sunday I realized that there are 3 things that consistently make me almost fall off my bike, or crash into other cyclists. Those three things are:

1) Pretty houses: Biking around the lakes in Minneapolis, it is impossible not to notice all the ridiculously beautiful homes around you. By "homes" I mean "mansions", really. They are amazing. When I see one I particularly like (every other house, roughly?) I start day dreaming about how I'd decorate the house I'll never own, with all the things I can't afford. I would do a bang up job, let me tell you - if I don't get killed by oncoming traffic first, that is.

2) Cute animals: Biking around the lakes also involves seeing quite a few ducks. And where ever there are ducks there are....DUCKLINGS! There is a little pond that I ride by often, and I have been watching the ducklings grow each week. First there were 5 and now there are only 3. I know that probably what happened to them isn't as nice as this, but I imagine they are off at duckling boarding school or something. Or maybe their parents split up and 2 of them decided to go with their dad? Anyway, in addition to ducklings there are the bunnies who sit along side the trails munching on grass and being all adorable. I always stare at them too and then nearly run some child off the trail. Woops!

3) BUGS! EEK! This is my least favorite reason for almost crashing my bike. Without fail, each and every ride my safety is compromised when a bug (or 17) attaches itself to my shirt, or flies down the front of my shirt, or lands in my hair, or ends up in my mouth. EEK! I cannot handle this. Yesterday I had to pick a beetle-like thing out of my sports bra. Not long after that I felt something land on my head (in the spaces of my helmet), and I actually found myself hoping it was bird poop! It wasn't. So instead of stopping, I just took off my helmet quickly while riding (look ma, no hands!) and starting fishing around in my hair. Instead of gently removing the poor thing, I smooshed him into my hair. It was not pleasant for me, but even less pleasant for him. Again, woops!

At any rate, while Andrea mentioned that her legs are shaping up nicely, I cannot say the same. This could be because as soon as I got home, I cooked and then devoured a giant tub of pesto pasta with sundried tomatoes and tofu, and then baked 2 different kinds of delicious vegan layer cakes:

Vanilla cake with fluffy lemon frosting
and Double chocolate with chocolate frosting:


Yeah, that might be part of the problem. It's hard to say, though, really...

-Mindy

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