Bike On Baby

I am guessing that those of you who follow me here are also my friends on facebook - although I do know a few of you who read here that don't read there - so this won't be too much of a repeat and then again even if you do follow facebook posts you aren't completely privy to the "little" pieces of this adventure I went on.

I went Biking!

Yeah, yeah, biking - BIG DEAL. You have been biking on and off for years now. True. I have. At one point BL and I were biking almost daily and I had gotten SO SOO SOOO SOOOO good that I actually was able to beat men up Skinker Blvd - I mean from the Bottom to the Top - not from the Top to the Bottom. For those of you not from STL and/or not familiar with Forest Park - Skinker is a Big Ass hill if you aren't riding down it.

And NO the men weren't on three wheeler bikes. And NO they also were not under the age of 5 years old. They were real men that were within my health category and one of them even stopped me after we made it to the top and congratulated me.

That said - my biking isn't new - it is just new here in Central IL - where everything is supposed to be Flat as a pancake (lies lies lies).

Recently - about 2 months ago, after working out at the gym for a month and doing pilates to strengthen my core muscles again (otherwise it is really hard to sit on a bike bent over for extended periods of time) - I started biking. At first it was just 10 miles at a time - then 12 - then 15 - and then I kinda stopped at 17 miles and just made that my cycle. And then..........BigGuy sent home a form about a Bike Ride hosted by his employer. See they are promoting healthy lifestyles - which makes sense since they are an insurance company. They had 3 routes set up - 20 mile, 32 mile and 50 mile. I wanted the whole family to do it - TheKing in the bike trailer behind BigGuy - Spidey on the trailer bike (I would borrow it back was the plan) behind me - and SuperStar on her own. BigGuy sent home the application - I talked to the kids and found out

Not a Single One of Them Wanted to Go.

Totally unaffected I decided it would be an exercise date for BigGuy and I - and I found friends to take the kids for 5 hours. Surprisingly easy. We picked a route - 32 miles. Scared me a bit, but I was half way there already and BigGuy had a month to prepare. And I started - 20 miles a weekend in one ride - then 22 miles a weekend 2x's - and lots of eliptical and pilates time. I was pretty sure 32 miles would be a breeze.

Then a neighbor ran into me at the grocery store. He and I bump into each other (not literally) when we are biking around the 5 mile loop - he asked if I was riding and I mentioned the planned adventure. He immediately got excited and asked to come along - see he didn't work for the insurance company and you had to be a member or friend. So he was in..............only he came with fear of the SAG wagon people - whom I had no knowledge of. To me the SAG wagon was the car that would come to help me if I had a problem.........to him the SAG wagon was the car that would scream LOSER if they had to come get you. He thought 32 miles might kill us and we would be embarassed by the SAG wagon. Hmmmmmm................now I had some fear - kinda.

So back to biking, eliptical and pilates. In the process I dropped 18lbs. Can't complain about that. Then 2 weeks prior to the ride BigGuy hurt his knee. Keep in mind he had NOT done a dog gone thing to prep for the ride. So his hurt knee pretty much solidified he would not be riding. We waited to see. Did I want to go without him? Who would I complain to? The neighbor? Would he mind my cursing as we went up the hills (we pre-drove it and 12 miles of the ride was just hills - really sucky hills)? And honestly - when I was actually riding all I could think was "who the fucks idea was this?" I think I even said it outloud.........although there wasn't enough breath in my lungs to make it very loud.

Thursday before the ride on Saturday BigGuy says, "Well my knee feels okay. I am going to ride the loop around the neighborhood to see if I can bike." And he was off. About 5 minutes later he came back in, "Yeah, it should be good." It takes me 20 minutes to do the 5 mile loop so I had to ask.........."Did you do the full 5 miles that fast?"....."No, just 1 mile.".........."And you are sure you can do 32?"........."Well I will finish my training up tomorrow, but I think I am good."

Really? Like really really?

And that is what he did.........if his training on Friday included doing absolutely NOT A DAMB THING! Saturday morning we were off. Dropped the kids off. Met up with the neighbor. Signed in. Decided to do the 20 miles because of knees and SAG wagon fears - with an option to do 32. Did the first 10 miles in 35 minutes and decided to go 32. The next 12 was ALL HILLS. And I am not being a baby - I was practicing hills to prep - these hills were hills and hills and hills - then a long stretch going up - slight stretch down AGAINST wind so that there was no rest - then a big dip down...........only to go right back up. It really stunk. But we did it. BigGuy was even in front of me most of the time. Probably because his legs are two times the length of mine. We made it that 12 miles in just about 80 minutes. Then the last 10 miles home. Which were up inclines a bit - but pretty easy really. Except that is when BigGuy started to really look not so good. At first I thought he was just being sweet staying back with me, but then it started to dawn on me that I could easily pass him and keep going. This last stretch was hard for him.

The neighbor did absolutely great. He kept saying "I'm 52 so you guys will do so much better." and stuff similar before the race - so I told him I never wanted to hear that crap again. 52 my ass.

Now here is what confused me............we made it to the end and they fed us lunch. This was all about Healthy Lifestyle Choices. Here is what we were given for our lunch:
Choice -
* Hamburger - Hotdog - or Steamed Chicken Breast - all served with a white hamburger bun
* Full Fat Cheese Slice
* Full Fat Mayo, Mustard, Pickles
* Choice of 3 types of chips (potato, bbq or Doritos)
* Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ahhhhhhhhhhh...............where is the health there?

So I asked if the closed container held fruits or veggies. And it DID!!! Only I couldn't have it because I didn't check Vegetarian Option. Which leads me to believe that the only way you get fruits or veggies is if you don't eat meat? Huh?

Of course as I complained to the guys their response was, "Do you realize how many calories we just burned? It doesn't matter what we eat." Really? Well for me it was more that the food we were served was going to make me barf because of mixing it with the ride. Plus........honestly my tush was in such pain I couldn't sit to eat anyway.

What happened to BigGuy? He pretty much passed out when we got home. He looked green and sick sick sick. But the next day he was just fine. So not fair.