Lessons learned! Shannon

Foot update:  I'm still being good and not running.  It's been 11 days since my last run!  I think I might go crazy!  My heel still hurts!  I'm icing, stretching, taping, etc.  I even went and had a reflexology session over a week ago and then I went had a regular massage on Friday with someone who specializes in runners and they did some shiatsu trigger therapy on my foot.  I must say it's feeling a bit better, but I'm still not feeling very optomistic about it healing in time for me to start my official training for WTC.  However, I'm not giving up hope!

Now on to lessons learned.  Lessons learned about what, you ask?  Lessons learned on my bike, yes my biking adventures have begun.  I have yet to do anything really exciting on my bike to tell you about, but I thought I'd share what I've learned so far.

1.  Hill repeats on a bike are WAY harder than hill repeats on you your feet!

I lead an early morning hill repeat run on Tuesday mornings and instead of canceling I've decided that I will continue to lead the group, however, I will be doing it on my bike.  Well last Tuesday was my first session with a hill repeat workout on my mountain bike.  We did a nice easy warm up then headed to Decatur Street in Old Folsom.  This is a short but steep hill, not too steep, but steep enough to get your heart rate up.  I thought, this will be a piece of cake on my bike.  NOT!  After my first attempt, I thought OMG this is much harder than I had anticipated.  My running buddies were passing me up - WHAT?!  As usual, I'm still a turtle even on my bike - LOL.  I managed to get in 4 hill repeats that day and thought to myself, if I keep this training up I'll have thighs of steel - HHHHMMMM.

2.  Reflectors are not cool!

What? What's wrong with reflectors?  I'm riding in the dark, shouldn't I have reflectors?  My friend Ralph, that same Tuesday morning during hill repeats, lovingly told me that the reflectors have to go.  Mountain bikes aren't cool with reflectors.  HHHHMMM.  After hill repeats, I headed to work and took my bike inside (cuz it's not safe outside) and my friend Tom, who is also a crazy MTBer proceeded to confirm Ralph's statement, and told me that reflectors aren't cool.   Whatever!  Until I can afford to have a Road Bike and a Mountain Bike, and as long as I'm riding my mountain bike on the streets in the dark, the reflectors stay on.

3.  Kickstands are not cool!

What?  What's with all this stuff not being cool!  Tom totally made fun of me for having a kickstand on my bike.  I said what's the big deal?  He then proceed to share his vast knowledge about MTBing.  Anything that adds weight to your bike, that is not necessary, needs to go.  He said my bike was pretty heavy to begin with and that I should try to lighten it up.  I aked, "what, my kickstand adds a whole ounce?" LOL.  Anyways, I told him he had carte blanche to make my bike "cool" or at least remotely cooler than it is now.  So he took off the kickstand and the chain guard.  Apparently, you need the teeth of your gears to help you get over logs when you're mountain biking.  HHHHMMM, not sure how many logs I'll be attempting to jump over, but ok, I want to be cool.  When he handed me the kickstand, I was shocked to feel just how heavy that sucker was.  It was at least a pound.  Now I know why it was so hard to get up that hill. Sheesh.

4.  Riding in the dusk requires a face shield!

Yuck - I'm not sure how many bugs I ate or ended up in my eyes on Wednesday night when I went for a ride around the lake.  I started out from Karen's heading toward Hazel on the dirt trail.  It was around 4:45 and the sun was slowly going down.  On the dirt trail, I battled bugs.  Not pleasant.

EEEWWW - this is what I felt like after my ride! Gross!

5.  Riding in the dark by yourself on the bike trail is scary!

By the time I ended up on the opposite side of the river heading back to my truck it was dark and it got creepy.  I didn't see too many other bikes out and on that portion of the bike trail you can't see the river, which meant you were more inland/shielded from view.  Creepy.  I won't be doing that anymore.

So that's what I've learned so far.  Stay tuned for more adventures in my biking world.

PS - I'm really missing the trails.  My feet can't wait to hit dirt again.

Stay dirty or actually right now, stay muddy.

Happy Thanksgiving!