Mile 27

Today was to be the culmination of a 3 day road cycling excursion across half of Iowa. But as you can read I am blogging from my air conditioned house for you beautiful people. Injuries and a brief hospital stay for my good friend put our plans to a halt. Good news (or bad-read below) I found a replacement ride a little closer to home and for a good cause. So our new plan is to ride in the beautiful Black Hills of Devil's Tower, Spearfish, and Belle Fourche for Ride MS. Two packed days of 70 mile trips. Yes 70, and I thought a 50+ miler in Iowa was intimidating.
Here lies the problem, there are few goals I set for myself that I don't meet...there are some, but the big ones I can do. So in the spirit of continuing to train I set out for a long ride. Long for me meaning over 25-a goal I have yet to meet. It seems like fishing, camping, and basic summer fun has just fit on the plate better the last two months.

I get on the bike, temperature is good, no wind (ya, not until turning AROUND) and the first 10 feels fabulous-20 mph average, I am thinking oh yes, going for 30 today, and it may just be easy. At mile 15 the half way point I feel good, stop for a cliff bar and a drink and realize I neglected to put my water on the bike. No biggy, not really thirsty. So I turn around and realize NOW that the lovely wind I had at my bike is in my face. Mouth is a litte dry, but I am still optimistic...
My optimism quickly fades as I get thirstier and the wind annoys me more. At mile 20 I text my hubby that I would die for some gatorade. No response, a little reassurance was all I was looking for, as I was still determined to make it. I turn off the FLAT part of the trek and hit the hills that I have to survive to get back to the car. Now my mouth is really dry, my stomach hurts, legs are shaky and a little light headed.
I am determined but thinking "This could be bad". At mile 27 with a big hill facing me and more lightheaded feeling. I do the unthinkable I text hubby, "Come get me".
He responds "What?" I text it again,
"Umm not feeling well, come get me"
He calls and meets me where I sit in the scratchy grass with the grasshoppers, and proceeds to lecture me about the lack of water. "I told you every 15 minutes, DRINK"
Sigh
All I can think of is two weeks until dry hot Wyoming and my legs need to do what my mouth says it can do. Mile 27 just isn't going to be enough and I try to remind myself, if it was easy everyone would do it.

Whooing and hibernation

3 weeks from today I will be back in my little office, in my not so little school preparing for the 4th year. Not sure if it was the weird crazy year or the changes in the future, but I am having hard time even wrapping my brain around going back. I think I forget how much I love summer, I am sure I could look at past blog posts at this same time each year and it will be the same thing. Sleeping in, time with boys (who are becoming small men quickly), exercising, better yet recipes and cooking. Road trips and everything ELSE!
So as I pack for another work trip, this one to Denver, I am hoping I can get my "whoo" on-that is that social set of skills of small talk, getting to know complete strangers, acting smart and impressing people I don't know. At the same time maybe a little time ALONE in the car, in the hotel with my professional books may be just the ticket to get my brain in a little thinking action. Maybe a little hibernation will help.  We will see

Tidbits and time suckers

I thought I would leave you with some quick tidbits before I head out for a busy week of professional learning, Pierre today and tomorrow, home Wednesday, Denver Thursday thru Sunday. Whew.
I new time sucker has arrived on the horizon-Pixlr-o-matic. I have been seeing all these cool photo people keep posting and figured I just need to see for myself. Instagram was not an option so found this one. THIS could cause me to lose a lot of useful time! The secret artist/photographer could sit and play ALL day.
Boy and summer is in full steam but sadly winding down at the same time, back to work August 6, I am hoping this week of my own learning starts to get me in the mood, it seems like I JUSTgot in the mood for summer.
Well I think that is all for now, the best tidbit, maybe, hopefully, better be seeing Bobbi and Carey when they head out west this week.

Revel

rev·el

[ révv'l ]

1. take pleasure: to take great pleasure in something
2. enjoy party: to have an enjoyable time in the company of others, especially at a party
3. noisy celebration: an uproarious party or celebration

This is what summer means to me...I hope you are taking time to revel as well...in whatever way you choose

Back to normal, well almost

And there it is, one week already and sunny skies, and breezy ocean, and relaxing wave sounds are a distant memory.
Nothing like real life to bring you back to the real world. While on vacation my ragbrai team mate texts me to tell me our 3rd team member crashed and broke his collarbone, so our trip is on standby due to to support team logistics. Sigh, I am still trying to get over the disappointment. I persevered though and ventured out for my first ride in my clips. Unclipping BOTH feet is a must, learned that the hard way.
Small fry comes home with some small rash on his foot-we assume from venturing into the foliage to hunt iguanas OR then it becomes poison ivy from Horse Thief Lake-and is up all last night scratching and itching his feet like crazy. Oh and this was in OUR bed, so I think a nap is a must today.
Math tutoring for big fry resumes, you can all imagine how home practice went. An engineer father does not make for easy math practice when one doesn't "get" math. Poor big fry.
We skipped big races in Aberdeen to get caught up on long needed "to do" projects. Nothing like cleaning the garage from top to bottom to say family vacation away is over. But the garage looks fabulous. Oh but the dog apparently ate something in the dust pan pile and had a night of grass munching and gagging.

Yep back to reality