Good Life Ride

What a beautiful day for a ride.  Yep, I said "ride".  This is my first Good Life Ride today.  Bad part first...I signed up for the 22 miler but dropped to the 10 miler.  I was afraid I could not maintain the 10 mph requirement for the 22 mile distance.  I rode my bike on Monday for 15 miles and it was tough!  Don't know if it was where I rode or the grades or just the plain fact that I didn't use my gears as I should.  I am so new at biking and have SO much to learn!  I knew I could ride the 10 miles and probably could have done close to 20 with no problem but the speed made it a question.  After all, I can't stand when people bypass the rules just because they want to do something.  It is so selfish and annoying to others.  Hence...10 miles for me today. 

I wanted to do the very best that I could even if it was a fun ride.  It's just the competitor in me, I guess.  I started out in the front so I wouldn't have to get around those that planned on a leisurely ride or those with children.  For a short while, there were four people ahead of me.  It wasn't too long though before two couples passed me.  As we got through the roads and headed out on to the trail system the trees kept it nice and cool even though the temps were not bad to begin with.  The trail was so nice to ride on.  The eight folks that got ahead of me were barely seen after a couple of miles on this turn.  I enjoyed this so much!  It was so peaceful.  Before I realized it I was nearing the turn around point and they were all there .  I know this was a ride and not a race but when I reached this point, I didn't expect to just sit around and laugh at the teenagers that couldn't get the water container open for me!  A little irritating as it should have already been done.  After a quick swig, I got back on the trail and headed back to the finish. 

The feeling was so different from a race as there weren't any Start or Finish Lines.  You started together and finished on your own.  Something I've got to get accustomed to if I want to do more.  One thing I wasn't excited about was the many, many times you had to slow to almost a stop or stop completely for the road intersections on the trail.  I would guess that there were at least a dozen of those ONE WAY!  This slows you down a lot and really cuts into your speed.  Okay...it's coming out...the racer that I am. 

There were 4 rides today.  They were 10 miles, 22 miles, 40 miles and 64 miles with varying start times and locations.  The further you rode the earlier you started.  All ended at Tacky Jack's in Gulf Shores.  TJ served nachos and drinks and they were so good.  I can't wait to do this one next year...and, as of now, it will definitely be the 22 miler.  I found a couple of friends afterward and talked with them some.  Marsha and Pete were so encouraging even if they had just finished their 40 miles.  It's friends like these, whether they be bikers or runners, that reaches down inside you and gives you that extra "atta boy" that everyone wants and needs.  Thanks, guys!!  I appreciate you! 

Here are my stats when it was all said and done.  10.47 miles at a 10.6 mph for 59:03 minutes.  I am well pleased since I know this could have been faster.  I really, really enjoyed this and YES, there will be more.  I learned more about my gears and how to utilize them...again, this is a learning curve for sure, but my hope is getting stronger.  Unfortunately, there are no pics today.  :(  But I learned that I could get into this new sport easier than I thought I could.  Yay! 

I hope you are outside doing something because it's got to be beautiful where you are today.  I want to encourage you to at least, get out and walk a little.  Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all of my lady-friends. 

Robbie

Fiesta Five Flags 5k...Plus

April ended with completing 100 running/walking miles this month.  As a matter of fact, I have achieved 449.95 miles year-to-date on my way to reaching 1,000 miles for the year.  I'm thankful I am ahead of the game cause you never know what the future holds as far as being able to get them all in.  Also, I've been doing a 100-Mile Challenge each month since January and have more than accomplished this. 

We have run the Fiesta of Five Flags for years and it just seemed "right" to go to it this year.  Unfortunately, we neither one are up-to-par this year.  So we refocused our minds and did the best we could do.  As most of you know, my right hip has really been a pain...literally.  My plan this race was to run/walk it.  I had thought of withdrawing completely but hated to do that since I really could walk it if I needed to.  I didn't have a "plan" per se' but tried to run as much as I could and when I felt a twinge in my hip I walked a little bit.  This was what I did throughout the race.  I'm so glad that I went through with this.  Feeling like a quitter is quite different than feeling like you did the best you could do THROUGH the problem.  As it turned out, I placed 4th place in my age group of 14 others and only 5 seconds from actually getting an award!  Two ladies in my group received two of the top awards pushing me higher in rank. 

The month of May will present itself doing different things on a regular basis from the past.  For one, I'm going to stop running for two weeks and see if this helps my hip.  If I see progress but not completely pain free, then I will lay off another two weeks.  Hopefully, this will take care of my problem.  I'm thinking I'm having sciatic nerve problems. 

Secondly, I'm going to focus on riding my bike more to give my running legs a break for a while.  Today, I rode 15 miles on the trail system.  I honestly wish I could say I love cycling.  For now, I'm plugging along working on getting my butt use to the seat and not go numb before the ride is up.  I am still learning how to use my gears and there are so many things I need to know about a bike itself including maintenance and repair.

I saw a national bike challenge on Facebook and looked into it.  So in order to keep me on my bike regularly, I joined it.  For anyone that might be interested in doing this, too, here is the site
https://nationalbikechallenge.org/home .  Being realistic, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to keep with riding every day in May but I plan to ride at least one mile as much as I possibly can through the month and adding as many miles as I can through the end of September.  This includes spinning.  I hope by the end of the month, I can actually say that I look forward to riding 10 or 15 miles whenever I choose and that my butt will not hurt any more. 

I'll be looking into swimming soon to give me another cross training workout while my hip heals.  I'm also going to try a Gentle Yoga class. 

Well, that's it for now.  I'm looking forward to better running/racing this fall/winter.  Summer is not my time to run outside anyway so this is a great time to "lay off".  Hope all is going well for you.  Until next time

Run 4 It