I'M BACK!!!!!

...on the bike, that is.

Last week's workouts were a little less than stellar. After my "big" 10 mile ride outside on Monday, I attempted to do yoga on Tuesday. I say attempted, because I couldn't do half the moves. It was very frustrating. I can do a one -arm downward dog, but you don't want to see my attempt at a one-arm push-up. Not pretty. Then Wednesday I did a very slow 3 mile run on the treadmill to see if running would hurt the shoulder. I don't think it did, but either I was wrong or I slept weird Wednesday night, because I woke up Thursday morning and my whole upper back/neck/shoulder area was TIGHT. It was so tight that I called a couple of places Thursday to see if I could get in for a massage over my lunch hour. It didn't happen. I decided that my body may be telling me I was trying to do too much too fast, so I didn't work out Thursday night.

Friday night was spent running all over town like a chicken with my head cut off. My husband had to go out of town, so I got to be single mom all weekend. Madison had volleyball practice Friday night and we found out Thursday night that I needed to be at a parent meeting for Dalton's soccer Friday night as well. Both at the same time. Yeah, that would work if I could clone myself. Fortunately, we know some of the parents from Madison's volleyball team so I asked one if they could take Madison and bring her home. That was taken care of, so off Dalton and I went to soccer. After that meeting I ran him back home, got him some dinner, made sure he was packed and took him to one of his teammates house so he could spend the night and ride with them to his game in San Antonio the next morning while I would be out for my long bike ride. After dropping him off, I headed to the store to get gatorade and goodies for my ride and then headed to Taco Bell for my dinner and finally got home around 9:00. I ate and got my things ready and then soaked in a hot bath for a bit hoping that would relax my shoulder a little.

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed north for the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This is one of the events some of our teammates fundraised for, so that meant we had some who would be doing the 105 mile route. Several teammates were planning on 80 and others were doing 60. I had originally been asked to do the 80 mile route with one of my teammates who also happens to be a survivor and is the honored hero for this season. He is an awesome guy with a great attitude, so I had no problem agreeing to this. But when I got there Saturday morning, coach had a different plan. He asked if I would be willing to get sagged forward a little bit so that I could meet up with one of the teammates doing the 105 route and have fresh legs to help bring him in. He told me I could ride the first 20 miles until I got to the third rest stop and then sag forward a bit and ride the rest of the route. So, that's what I did.

I tried to stay with Mike (the honored hero) at first, but he was just so dang excited, he took off. So I just kind of did my own thing, riding with teammates when I could find them, until I got further down the road. I do have to say that I was a little jittery in the beginning. When someone would get too close or cut in front of me I would put my hands very close to those brakes. But, I made it to the rest stop just fine. No so for Patrick. He popped a spoke about mile 19. But, he has done that before, so he was prepared and had extra spokes in his seat post. There were mechanics at the third rest stop, so he got it fixed and sagged forward with me. When Terry, Mike, Shelly and John came through the rest stop we were at, we joined them and headed off to finish the ride with them. And let me just say that neither Terry nor Mike needed my "fresh legs". Those guys were riding like they could go all day. It was wonderful to see their excitement. As for me, the heat started getting me latter in the ride, so at the aid stations I would stop and pour ice water over my head. When I stopped at the last one about 5 miles out Terry kept riding and said he wasn't stopping. Mike followed right behind him. I hurried up and dumped the water on my head and then told Patrick we needed to catch them. It took a little bit, but we did catch them. And it was awesome to be just right behind them as they crossed the "finish line". I checked my bike computer and I had gotten in 85 miles! Not bad for the second outside ride after a crash, huh?

I had planned ahead for the heat and packed a coke in my cooler, so I never made it to the proverbial "TNT finish line". When I got to my car, I stopped, got off my bike, grabbed my coke, and headed over to the curb to sit down and drink it. And then I lay there with an ice cold rag on my head and got water dumped on me. It felt good.

After I was finally cooled off a bit, I changed clothes and waited for our other 105 mile rider to come in. After she came in, I headed home to shower and headed to the victory party. There wasn't too great of a turnout since it's a local event, but Patrick, Mike and Terry were there, so that it was worth it. After that I headed home, had a glass of wine, and went to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit (by that I mean that I didn't get out of bed until 7:30). Madison and Dalton made their own breakfast AND washed dishes, so that was great. I had my normal shake and we headed off to Sunday school and church. After church we headed home and put on our swimsuits so we could head out to my parents and spend the day by the pool. My parents were still out of town as well so it was just the three of us. The kids had fun swimming and playing in the pool and I just enjoyed laying in the lounge chair relaxing. I was in the sun for a little bit, but pulled the chair on the patio in the shade and took a nap for a while as well. It was a very relaxing Mother's Day.

Today was back to work but it was a slow day as most of the office was out on business. I finally got my massage after work (man am I tight - need to go back for more) and then headed to Madison's soccer game.

Today officially starts my marathon training for the Marine Corps Marathon, so when I got home I headed out for a run at 7:00. It felt a little cooler, but by the time I was done with my 4 miles I was soaked. I fixed me some dinner, put the kids to bed and then at 9:00 took Roscoe out for his walk. I'm soaked all over again. It's going to be a long hot summer!

And just for laughs.....remember when I mentioned we did curb side collections and made over $800. Well, most of that was in $1 bills. I didn't really think anything of it until I got ready to take it to the bank to deposit. First of all, $400-$500 in $1 bills does not fit in the little tube at the drive thru. Second of all, I started thinking that even if it did, I may not want to send it all at once. They would probably get the money and go "yep, this lady is a stripper".