Ever.
Although sometimes riding closely behind Andrew as he learns his new bike feels as scary!
Yesterday I rode 4.3 miles. An easy day. Andrew on the otherhand was a maniac. Logged nearly 8 miles! Today he cried angrily at the all day annoying rain. Because of the chill that accompanied it we would not let him ride. You'd have thought we murdered his best friend, so distraught. He loves wheeled flight. I have my biking muse!
Just noticed that last post was number 400. Big number.
Today I did 5.91 miles on my bike. 2 miles of that was with Andrew, so it was a bit slow, but then I took off on my own after we met up with Scott and got a few harder miles in. Felt good. Probably gonna hurt tomorrow. That makes me smile.
Someone commented the other day that I hadn't been talking about biking much lately. Part of that is because I haven't been biking as much. I've only gotten out a couple times a week since the fair was over. Part of it is that there isn't much to say. I've standardised my rides into a long one (10 miles) and a shorter ride (6 miles) and things progress pretty normally on both. Today's ride was a bit different though, as it was 39 degrees out when I left the house! I dug out my winter clothes, found my running pants and wind breaker from my winter running days, found some cotton gloves and left my hair down for extra warmth. Then away I went.
Was it cold? YEP! I took the short ride and contemplated an additional layer next time I ride at this temperature. It was good to know that I could ride when it's in this range, I just wasn't sure. Now as long as their isn't snow build up I should be able to ride on and off all winter, since 30's are common here, contrary to everyone's belief that it stays twenty below from September 15 through May 15.
I came home to a wonderful surprise: Scott doesn't have to work today so we are off to Duluth in a few minutes to hawk watch, beer drink, inland sea enjoy. Have a great one!
Since we went to the incredible farting fireworks on Monday night, and since Scott's mom was being taken care of by Vivian, we spent the day at home. It felt marvelous.
I didn't go biking in the morning, as a possible walk with a friend was on the slate, by 9:30am we were all outside at Andrew's request helping him with his bike riding skills. Since the training wheels came off on Saturday he has been mad to learn how to ride on two wheels. He'd be out there 24/7 if his parents had the strength to keep up with him!
He practiced riding down the hill along France Avenue, and then down the grassy hill by Crosspointe Church. He is a natural! After just a couple of hours, interspersed with sidewalk chalk art and playing on the playground at the church, he was riding like a pro.
The star background by the way, is a paper towel, on which I stamped stars using metallic paint and then took a bronze marker and dotted each dot of quilting on the towel. Took me an hour, but I love the results, and love that I scrapbooked with a paper towel. Mr. Stormecrowe, consider this page one.
In the afternoon he begged Scott to take him out again, and they went all over our block. Then in the early evening, he begged me to go on a "real" ride with him. Since I hadn't been out yet, I figured I'd start riding with him, then drop him at home and finish my ride.
Speaking of my ride...you know the grinding I'd talked about on Scott's bike, which I think I rode Sunday and Monday? Well, as Scott was loading it into the back of the truck after I road it to Lake Normandale he noticed something funny about the back wheel. The grinding was my back wheel rubbing against the frame. It was rubbing against the frame because the nut and bolt assembly that holds the tire on was loose. As in turn it in your hands and it falls off loose. Hmmm, that could have been scary! But I was kept safe and Scott did some maintenance to the bike Tuesday so I was safe to ride again.
Andrew did pretty well on his first "real" ride. 
We traveled 2.7 miles and although it was a bit tedious for me with all the stops and starts, he really did amazingly well. We even had a couple walkers/riders comment on how well he was doing. We biked to Ethan's house, but they weren't home to tell the good news, so we headed back and stopped off at the park to play a bit. 
Mainly Andrew just wanted to ride more. I am so proud of his determination and passion. He fell off once, and jumped back up saying, "I'm not hurt, I'm not hurt" and got right back on. I was grinning the whole ride. First we taught him to read, now we taught him to bike. Proud moments(oh and that potty trained thing was a pretty big one too!)
His papa took him home from that point and I finished up a 7.7 mile ride. It was while I was on 106th, a designated bike route, riding in the proper lane, on the four lane 30mph winding drive when I had my first yelled rude comment. The gist was that I needed to get off the road, but said with a few more extraneous words thrown in. Nice. Of course the white trash truck from whence it issued was going at least 50mph. It made me sad. But riding on the road is so much easier that I didn't back down and finished out the ride.
My week total through Monday was 49.7 by the way.
What? You want to hear about the farting fireworks? Oh, look at the time, I'll have to tell that one later! Andrew and I are off on the train to downtown to meet Laurie and Lauren at the library, have lunch and swim in their condo's pool!
I don't wanna go. I don't wanna ride. I'm tired and everything hurts. Pout.
Ah, but if I don't go I'll be angry with myself. I made a promise.
Alot of this is about the weather. Its already 73 degrees and about 85% humidity.
Not this big girls comfortable weather for biking.
I'd much rather have it 55 and 10% humidity.
Biking today will feel something
like this
So, now you know.
When the going gets tough, I whine.
On to much better news, Mike went home from the hospital yesterday! This is very good news indeed! I know they will have a million visitors this weekend, so I'm gonna call on Monday and see if we can stop by. They are a very private family and I don't want to stress anyone out. Miss them like crazy though.
Check this blog out: http://scrapbookconspiracy.blogspot.com This is my new friend Lisa's blog. She is married to a guy who is in Iraq right now, I think stationed where Lance is stationed. Coincidentally, he is also coming home for a leave that will partially coincide with Lance's leave. Maybe the six of us could get together for dinner or something. Anyway, I met her at Scrapbooks Too and fell in love immediately. She is a very cool woman and her blog is very active. I'll be adding it to my sidebar links today, but wanted to feature it right now.
Okay, you know what I gotta go do. See ya on the other side of the ride!
So, all of you who read my blog because of my intense interest in scrapbooking must be kinda concerned by now. I mean come on, what is all this biking stuff?
I dunno. I'm sure it will settle down.
Anywoo, guess what Andrew wanted to do last night for fun after Scott went to his meeting? Yep, bike. YIKES! So I added another 3 miles to my total last night. Of course those were the SLOWEST 3 miles all week, as we not only went at 6 year old speed, we went at 6 year old with training wheels one of which is stuck speed. Off with those bleepity things when we got home last night. And off with the pedals as well.
Mike had read an article a few years back that recommended the interim between training wheels and full on biking be filled with a few days of no pedal scooting. I guess it helps with learning to balance the bike and not focussing so much on pedaling. So, tonight we'll be starting that fun. I'm not looking forward to the learning curve, but I am looking forward to having Andrew up and running for real on a bike. He loves to ride and will love it even more when he can ride without fighting training wheel drag. It would be nice to be able to bike to the creek and the library on a regular basis. So let's hope he learns quickly and we can get on it!
I am remembering that I have alot of bike related connections in my life, now that I'm on and riding. One of my favorite people in the world, Michael, was/is an avid biker, and continues to ride extensively even after five or so knee surgeries. Michael took up bike riding after a serious knee injury in highschool. He chose it because of its lower impact. He also has a handy little scar on his face thanks to his bike. He was test driving a racing bike and not paying attention to where he was headed. Going about 40 mph he literally rammed nose first into the back of a parked semi. His nose was nearly removed from his face, and other than my undying admiration, its the only thing he has in common with Scott. Scott's nose removal occured when he was golfing with a buddy as a kid. FORE!
My brother for awhile was something of a bike enthusiast a few years back. He switched from running to biking because of the lower impact. I think he also switched because when he was running after dark one night near the Caponi Art Park in Eagan he was nearly hit head on by a deer. Lucky in that case he wasn't on a bike, which would have been harder to stop. I wonder if there are any stories of bikers being hit by deer? Hopefully my new friend Mr. Stormcrowe will educate me if there are. As with all things my brother does, his equipment for biking was the finest. I love that about him, he attacks whatever his latest passion is with gusto. I don't think he'd be caught dead on the $89 beater I'm trundling around on. 
And then there is my parents. My dad's company volunteers trucks and drivers for the MS150 every year. Sitting at a grand total of 29.6 miles for four days I can't even FATHOM doing 150 miles in two days. UGH! Their rest stops are 12 to 15 miles apart. That is twice as far as I have yet gone. So anyway, I have alot of admiration for those riders. My mom and dad followed the route this year because they were short a driver, so my dad volunteered to drive one of the food trucks along the route, and they camped in the cab each night. I guess it was only in the 30's the first night and they froze!
I can't imagine ever doing the 150, but the MS TRAM which is nearly 300 miles in 5 days sounds lovely for some reason. Maybe some day I'll do that. That would be something Jason and I could do together, he is also an avid biker. I seem to have alot of those in my life.
Now to all you scrapbookers who are ready for something more your style, here's the latest:
This biking thing, I don't know, I think I'm hooked. You know the guy I linked to the first day who has lost all the weight and is a biker? Well yesterday he read my comment about the bad ride due to the BIG hills and he gave me a tip. gmap pedometer is an online program by Google. You find your starting location on the map, and then double click your way through the course you want to travel. Not only does it keep exact track of the mileage of your course, it also has the option of showing you the elevation of your trek! No more ALL UPHILL bike rides. Woohoo!
Here is a picture of the map of my ride today. 8.2 miles and no major uphill battles!
This blue part at the bottom is the elevation information. I have mapped out five courses now, of varying lengths. Very fun stuff.
Tomorrow night Scott is going to help me get a new bike: he's going to help me get his much nicer bike up and running so my beater can take a rest. Nice big gel seat. AHHH!!!
Mike is doing better and better. Not all the longer term effects are known at this point, but they are talking about possibly allowing him to go home sometime in the next few days. Very, Very good news!
