Mine and My Cervelo's First Year Anniversary!!

First of all, thanks to everyone if you read yesterday's blog entry. Yes... I apologize for the fact that it was me venting! :) I have inherited my father's personality characteristic that when he gets worried, he gets upset! :) I'll never forget him coming home from work one day when I was 14, and I had just come home from purchasing a party dress for an upcoming dance with my boyfriend Billy, when Billy came over and broke up with me!! We were on my front steps when my dad walks up, and there's me crying. He asked what was the matter of course, and when I said that we were breaking up, he said right in front of Billy, "Good. I didn't like him anyways!" All in a pissed off manner! Of course at the time I was mortified, and mad at my dad for not being more sympathetic to my critical situation! Now, every time I think about it it makes me laugh. So, when I get worried about others, I tend to react in similar ways by just getting mad about the situation!! Anyways, thanks for the support, and sorry to dump my stress on my blogger friends!!

So... back to happier times where today my trusty ole bike and I went out for a ride! I was VERY excited about it because I've spent A LOT of time on my trainer of late, and of course much prefer riding outside. The temperature wasn't supposed to be too bad, but I had decided when it first got on my schedule that I'd be going NO MATTER what the weather was.

There's this cool little place about 30 minutes from my house called Columns Drive. It's literally the road of Columns Drive that is a 5 mile circle. At the end of it, it dead ends into the Chattahoochee National Park where a lot of Atlantans like to run next to the river. Doesn't have a so called bike lane, but the shoulder is SUPER wide, so it's just kind of become that. On almost any given day you see people of all ages and fitness levels out there riding in circles. Of course, you wouldn't want to go out there and ride high mileage. I think 2 hours is the most I've ever put in down there on the bike. But it's ideal for intervals. It's flat and you can push on one side and recover on the other! :)

That was the idea for today. Not to mention it makes for a great place for bricks. You just hop off and run!

Well today was more like a duathlon for me. My workout: to run 6 miles steady base run, then ride 20 miles (5 warm-up, 15 of LT intervals) and then hop off of the bike and do a 1 mile run working my way into my current goal pace.

I started off great! My run was good. Cold, but I was nicely bundled up, so it didn't really bother me. I ended up running more like 6.5 because the loops at the river are geared more towards being a 5k. I had surprisingly started on time!! (a rarity:), AND had even prepped all of my bike stuff before starting the initial run. By the time I got on the bike though, I was sweaty and the wind was CRAZY!!

There were two times that I thought, I am about to be blown off of this bike! I was FREEZING for that 5 mile warm-up. Of course once I started pushing it towards LT, I was producing enough body heat to keep me relatively warm. My issues were my toes and nose!! :)

Well during that ride when I was pushing into major wind, it reminded me of my first ride on that bike. It was right at almost a year ago! I bought it I believe on Feb. 8th, and I was SOOO excited!! It was my first tri-bike, and I thought it was Beautiful!!

Well of course the day after bringing it home, I wanted to take it for a spin!! The following day I took it over to the same place as today, Columns Drive, and rode for about 20 miles. It was different that riding a road bike, getting used to that feeling of being out on the aerobars :)! That particular day... was EXACTLY like today! It was freezing cold, and the wind was crazy that day as well. And there I was riding my brand new tri-bike for the very first time hoping to God that the wind didn't blow me over!! Not because I didn't want to get hurt, but because I didn't want to scratch it!! :)

Well, after a year of Ironman training on my beautiful blue carbon stead, it's got quite a few numbers of scratches on it. :) We've had some good times and some not so good rides together. But, I know it's crazy, but it's been there through it all with me, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!

So, I decided while I was out there today that it wasn't really bothering me that I couldn't feel my toes and that my nose was frozen yet running! It was me and my bike out there celebrating our first year together the way we first got to know each other!!

Some of you probably have personal emotions for your own bike, others may think I'm crazy, but either way... It's one of my FAVORITE things ever!!

Happy 1st Birthday Cervelo!!
K :)

Pictures of my new earring for the inquiring minds!!

(Ok, so I am not suggesting that I don't look like crap! I just figured this might be as good as it gets for a while :)!!