I wide my bike for a wheely wheely good time!

I haven’t been riding my bike for a long time.  Like…five months.  Why?  Just haven’t.  Have been meaning to, but just haven’t gotten around to it.  I don’t have anybody to ride with.  I don’t want to ride by myself.  Everyone is faster than me.  Everyone is training for something and I’m not.  Wah, wah, wah.  Just sayin’, that’s all. 

 

But two weeks ago I got back on my bike.  I rode around Ft. Desoto with a pal while talking about how we should really do this more often.  Like maybe even train again.  Or maybe I should just ride for fun, I don’t know.  He challenged me to a sprint…”to the bend in the road”.  He took off.  I’m also known as “Lisa-One-Speed”, so I didn’t take off.  I came chugging up behind him and then got closer and closer and then I went flying by him and I yelled a big “Woo-Hoooooooooo!” and then I just kept peddling and going and spun some more and boy did that make me happy!

 

Last week I went to Flatwoods with another pal.  He hadn’t ridden in a while (uh, that would be two weeks since an Ironman 70.3 in Puerto Rico…).  Yeah, I said, we’re gonna suck the same amount.  But we started off and I could tell that it was going to be a little tough.  The first of our three laps had my legs burning.  But the second felt OK and then came the third lap.  We came upon a pack of a few and slowly passed them.  And then we realized that they stayed with us which made us go faster just to show them we could and then my friend dropped back and then I stayed with the other guys and then I pulled a little and then I jockeyed around a little deciding where I could ride and still stay in my aero-bars and I almost got giggling a little and then I realized that my friend was not with us any longer so I slowed down and waited for him to catch up so we could go back to the parking lot where I danced around talking about how happy I was to be back on my beautiful red shiny bike.  Phew, that was fun!!

 

Today I went back to Flatwoods to try to replicate that same ride.  I had a flat tire but my friend (very graciously!!) changed it for me.  It was the back tire.  I consider that “man’s work”.  I usually pay someone to do that for me because I hate doing.  (Thanks GO!!)  Lap one…OK.  Lap two…whoa, my legs are working differently.  Somehow those leg exercises must be paying off because I do believe the right muscles are doing the job.  Lap three and the wind picks up…whaaaaaat?  I’ve lost my friend (he ran HARD all week!) by this point, but find a struggling roadie.  I tell him that we should ride together just for fun.  We peddle and we stand and we fight until we get to the next guy.  I was thinking the new guy looked like a good draft, but he was not going to go for that.  He got right on Roadie’s wheel and stayed there a bit.  I pulled faster and faster and said “isn’t this fun” but didn’t get a reply but one of them complained that he had a cold and that’s why he couldn’t pull but he sure appreciated me doing all the work because so may triathletes don’t want you to ride with him so I kept peddling while I explained to him that we get lost in our own thoughts and just like it when someone tells us that they are glommed on to our wheel so we don’t make any sudden wrong moves and kill the pack and all the while I’m not even huffing and puffing but the two guys yell “hey thanks but we can’t keep up with you anymore but we hope to see you again” and I yell “well yeah I had fun too and thanks for riding with me because I haven’t done this in months and how fast are we going anyway because I purposely don’t have my computer on my bike because I don’t want to get to competitive” and one yells “twenty twoooooooooo” so I smile and finish the lap by myself.

 

I take the last mile back to the parking lot a little slower.  I have missed the mountain bikers and the triathletes and the mud and the sweat and the spandex and the parking lot and the smelly boys.  My braids are blowing out behind me as the wind whistles through my helmet (I just put new stickers on it; isn’t it pretty?).  Wheeeeeee!  The streamers are pretty, too.  And my basket has flowers and I have a bell that I’m not afraid to use if you get in my way.  I think it’s time for a snack.

 

I got to my car to find a ticket on the window.  I forgot to pay the $2 park entrance fee.  Total cost:  $40. 

 

It was sooooo worth it.