Do I even ride a bike anymore?

I'm still riding a bike, but sometimes I forget to write about it. Last Thursday's ride was lackluster, but not due to the selected company or local terrain. The night before the ride I was awakened around 1:00am by Sally the foster dog. She was at the edge of the bed staring at me and beating the wall with her wagging tail. I scooched over and made room for her, she laid her head on my pillow, and we both fell asleep. Sometime later she flip flopped and she was ass-side up, so I put my back to hers and once again we both fell asleep.

The Pie woke me up to make me aware of the fact that I was encroaching heavily on her side of the bed. I told her Sally was behind me, and I didn't have anywhere to go. Not only that, but Sally was making me super hot, and my back was drenched in sweat.

I think it's sweat... my sweat...

I rolled around a bit, poked Sally to move, and found that the bed was soaked. Sally's on some heavy medications, and we thought perhaps she was drooling since the liquid was clear when dabbed with a paper towel. After further review of the play we discovered that one of the medications she's on to control her cancer is a diuretic, and I had been laying in dog pee.

I got up, took a shower, got on the internet, tried to forget that I was laying in dog pee moments ago, and eventually went to the couch to try and get some sleep. Hours later while I was supposed to be having fun on a 26 mile MTB ride, but I could feel the fatigue of a broken night's sleep and cut out after the first 13 mile loop. Fail. The price we pay to give this dog a quality of life. Needless to say we are swapping her medications to something that won't have her peeing on me in her sleep.

Saturday morning I loaded the road bike onto the dirty box for a strategic mission. Fajita was ending her Girls on the Run program with her participation in the Jingle Jog 5k. In retrospect it seemed like more of a logistical nightmare than trying to do Trans Iowa. Drive in strategically to avoid road closures for the marathon, drop of The Pie and Fajita off at the convention center, drive the car out of town and park it where we could make a quick getaway, reunite with said family, wander through a sea of thousands to the start, watch our 8yr old run away from us into the streets, find the finish line, and ride backwards into the masses of runners looking for my 50% height child wearing pink (just like 95% of the other little girls) to ride in with her to the finish... only to lose her again at the barriers and have to find her again standing waist high to the surrounding tall people.

The good news is that she finished and made it home alive.

Saturday afternoon I headed over to Bill Nye's house to ride his thirty mile road loop. It's been awhile since I've sacked up for a road ride in forty+ degree temps (I know, oooooh so cold). It's just that usually if the temps are chilly and the trails are dry I opt for the woods over tarmac 99% of the time. We were greeted with weekend holiday shopping traffic, and our conversations about riding somewhere different this summer were thrown over shoulders and above the wind and dull din of passing traffic.

Bill Nye's inclined climbing wall in his garage. Such the renaissance man. A garage full of bikes, skis, climbing gear, kayaks, and stacks of porn and Science Digest.

Oh yeah, just because I totally spaced out on the date and missed the Dirt Rag Punk Bike Enduro a coupla weeks ago doesn't mean it didn't happen, and that I am once again filled with regret for yet another year.




Even though I am crushed on the inside and spend more time blogging than riding I still, in fact, ride a bike once and awhile.

I have to do something to burn the calories.