Carol - Wednesdays ride.  Today the schedule called for a 20 mile ride.  I was going to start first thing this morning but it looked like it could start raining at any time so I decided to go into town and get my errands done.  Sure enough by the time I made it home it was sprinkling.  Now, I am no fair weather baby, but the idea of riding on slick rodes with skinny tires is a little bit intimidating.  So instead I put on my work clothes and went out and spread compost until I ran out.  By that time I was soaked and decided to ride on the trainer.  I rode my 20 miles.  For the first time in a while it didn't seem to bad, however, I can see how people can get addicted to tv. Some of the court shows kept me amused and the time went by rather quickly.
This Saturday calls for an eighty mile ride.....hope the weathers nice so I don't have to ride the trainer for six hours.

My new long sleeve jersey came from Amazon and it fit perfect.  I can hardly wait to ride the road in it.  Black, white, and red, it looks so racey.  I still haven't purchased the heart monitor but I love the new biking clothes I've purchased.

Next item needed:  Wrist ID to wear when on the road.

Carol - Saturday's ride.  What a joy it was to have Cassandra home.  We started the day coloring Easter eggs for Sunday (I love being creative).  Then, after careful preparation...which includes fueling our bodies, checking tire pressure, lubing chains, packing our riding gear and bikes into our vehicles, we finally took off for our departure site by Sammish Island at the public hunting area.  After parking we looked up to see a wonderful young eagle in the tree.  What an amazing sight that was.
We started our ride in the direction of Bayview continuing on to LaConner.  Our average speed with no tail wind was 15.5.  This part of the ride was wonderful...good speed, great companionship, and lots of beautiful sunshine.  We couldn't ask for anything better.  After reaching LaConner we looked for a place to eat where our family friend Melissa works.  Yes, we needed to eat again to keep our energy levels up.  This ended up being a very good thing because after leaving LaConner we rode toward Conway then crossed over to ride through the tulip fields.  Wow....the sun was still shining but the wind we encountered was crazy.  From my time spent on our sailboat I've become pretty good at determining wind speed and it must have been blowing a constant 35 with gusts higher than that.  I've never ridden in wind like that before and at times it almost blew me and Cassandra off our bikes.  It felt like a constant non-stop uphill battle trying to ride against it.  Where before we were making such good speed, we were now averaging about 11mph.  Sometimes we actually dropped to 8mph and we rode our remaining 20+ miles in these conditions.  Needless to say we were both exhausted when we finished.
Since I usually ride alone I treasured having Cassandra with me and without her I probably would have been tempted to find another way back to the truck. All I can say is thank you honey for the inspiration to continue.

Instructions for Posting Comments

Cassandra: We have heard from several people that they haven't been able to post comments, so I checked out the process and here are the instructions. You can click on 'Comment' underneath a post to make a comment. Type what you want to say. Then, you will have to select a profile. The easiest one that probably applies to the most people is Google Mail (Gmail). If you have Gmail, click on that. It will redirect you to your Google login page. Log in to your account and you will see a page setting up an account for Blogger.com. Just type the name you want your posts to be credited to, accept the terms of service, and then you will be taken back to Blogger.com to finalize your comment. Type in the little security phrase and you should be good to go. Your comment will post to our blog and you won't have to go through this big long process again. I know it sounds complicated but the system takes you right through all of the pages to create an account and finalize your post, so it really isn't as hard as it seems. We can't wait to hear from all of you!

Cassandra: This weekend mom and I enjoyed our first outdoor ride together on our new bikes! Since I was home for Easter we decided to do our ride up north, in Skagit County. It was a beautiful day to ride and we had a lot of fun. Our ride took us from the release site at Samish Island (near Edison), through the mostly straight roads and rolling hills near Padilla Bay, across Highway 20, and through the fields of blooming daffodils and tulip buds to La Conner. We stopped to eat lunch at the Waterfront Cafe, where our family friend Melissa works, and then we were off again, winding our way back through different fields and on different long, straight roads (Skagit County has an abundance of these) to mix up the scenery.

The weather was gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for anything better, except for maybe less wind. At times we were getting blown completely around ... I had to take my bar mitts off my bike because they were acting like sails. I also unclipped for some of the time, because I was worried I was going to tip over and not be able to put my feet down to catch myself. The wind was scary when it came as a cross-breeze but presented challenges even when it was head-on, making the flat roads feel like steep hills. I don't think we had a tail-wind the whole ride!

I really liked biking in such a rural location. It was very different from biking the Burke Gilman, where there are tons of people and you get some pretty scenery (Lake Washington), but not much tranquility. I don't think anyone out there is writing poetry about the Burke-Gilman, but they could about the Skagit flats. Our constant companions were farm animals, it seemed. We saw horses who perked up and watched us, goats who didn't even notice us, and lots of cows. The big ones just looked at us with lazy eyes but the little ones were completely terrified of our bikes and ran quickly away. We even saw an immature eagle in a tree where we left our cars.

Besides the nice weather and the great setting, it was fun to finally ride as a team with mom. We ride at generally the same pace and are going to do just fine on the STP, I think. We certainly had our share of laughs (mom wearing her sunglasses and her reading glasses at the same time) and complaints (the wind) on our ride. Here's to many more!

Here is our ride in stats:
Total Time: 2 hours 57 minutes
Miles: 35.73
Average Speed: 12.2 mph
Max Speed: 22.2 mph

Cassandra: I did the same thing as mom this week and split my mid-week ride in two, riding the trainer for 46 minutes on Wednesday night after my nutrition class and 47 minutes on Thursday morning after waking up. I needed the Wednesday night ride; for some reason, after class, my mind was on fire. I just couldn't wind down. I needed something to burn off all of my energy. And for the most part, my ride accomplished that. For once, I didn't wear my heart-rate monitor but I was riding at about a 140-bpm pace. I did the same thing on Thursday morning. I tell you, it is harder to work out in the morning when you just wake up and your muscles are cold. But, it is a good way to shake off sleep and get your energy up for the day. I rode at more of a 150-155 bpm pace that morning, with limited soreness from the night before.

I am having a persistent training pain in my left hip, which seems to get worse when I ride. Originally, the pain started after my first-ever kickboxing class. Now, it just doesn't seem to go away. It feels like a charlie-horse in my hip/lower back, coming on whenever it feels like it and pulsing until I do something like stretch or roll on the foam roller that Dennis got to stretch his IT band. I think I need to focus more on stretching and proactively rolling on the foam roller a few times a day to keep the pain away.

This weekend I am headed up to Bellingham and mom and I are planning on riding together on Saturday. It will be our first outside training ride together! Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

Carol - I have been negligent in posting lately.  I think this goes hand in hand with my mental state.  It has been very difficult for me to ride on the trainer lately.  Yes, I have been putting my miles in mid-week which is twenty to thirty, however, this week I decided to spread them out over two days.  Yesterday I rode seven miles at the gym on the spin cycle.  This was once again interval training with some high intensity interspersed with recovery pace.  For some reason time seems to go faster when I am at the gym.  I'm not sure if that's because of the distraction of other people working out or if it's my competitive nature to succeed (especially within eyesight of other people).  Anyway, I finished my workout with an intense weight lifting session and felt great.
Today I had planned on riding the rest of my miles in the morning, however, the plumber was here to finish the bathroom and the faucet fittings we had bought would not fit.  So, off I went to find another so he can come back before Cassandra comes home this weekend.  I wasn't in the mood to go to town so I decided that I would go to REI first to purchase a few items on my continuous bike "need" list.  This was something I could at least get excited about.  I was so happy when I found two hot pink jersey's:  one short sleeve and the other sleeveless, a pair of biking shorts, riding glasses with interchangeable lenses, arm warmers, fingerless gloves (for when it warms up) that match my bike colors, and two pair of socks.  All my pretty's will inspire me to ride more, and I'm sure faster.  Then off to get the new faucet, a few groceries and back home. The weather warmed up while I was in town so I decided to find some good hills close by the house and finish my miles for the day.  I ended up riding some of the same roads I had ridden when I first got my bike.  I remembered how difficult some of the hills were so I was pleased when I breezed up them without stopping.  I was at mile six riding up Euclid when I felt that familiar female feeling of warmth.  Way to break in the new biking shorts!!  Of course I headed home feeling cheated out of a longer ride...but that's okay, because this weekend we are scheduled to ride one hundred miles....I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Cassandra: I was overjoyed yesterday when the weather was nice enough for me to ride outside on my bike. There was a bonus, too, and that was that I also had company. Dennis and I played leap-frog on the Burke-Gilman for a little over an hour and a half, and about 24 miles. By this point, most of my gear issues have been solved. To combat my perpetually cold hands I invested in some Bar Mitts, which are neoprene mitts that wrap around the handlebars. You slide your hands inside for access to the handlebars, shifters, and brakes. My hands stayed toasty warm yesterday. I did run into one potential problem, though, and that is that you have to slide your hands in the mitts in order to hit the brakes. I tried squeezing them on the outside and ended up off the trail and in a flower bed. I have also come up with a solution to having a cold core. I am now layering a long-sleeve shirt underneath my Smartwool instead of a jersey. Everything gets topped with my bright riding jacket. Yesterday my temperature was great. It was so nice to be outside, and with company, while I was riding yesterday. I almost didn't notice the soreness in my legs from riding both Friday and Saturday on the trainer.

I really prefer riding outside now when the weather permits. It is a lot more entertaining and as a result time goes by much more quickly. But, I have to say, I am getting more and more weary of the busy Burke-Gilman. Last weekend a little girl on a bike swerved into me and nearly caused me to lose my balance and fall off my bike. When you're clipped in and can't get your feet out in a hurry, losing your balance can lead to a huge injury. Her parents weren't watching her and didn't even apologize to me. And then yesterday some people were just talking on the side of the trail. Their dog lunged for another dog across the trail, nearly hitting Dennis who hit his brakes so hard that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stop in time and keep from hitting him. Of course, those people didn't apologize for nearly causing an accident, either. Some people are just clueless.