It didn't kill me

Success! I survived biking 40+ miles on Saturday morning despite having a "summer cold" (who knew getting a cold in the summer was deemed a 'summer cold') and not riding since 1996. I.am.awesome.

My ass hurts though. And let's not even talk about the pain The Mr feels. We're kind of wondering if he can produce sperm anymore. I may have inadvertently crossed off item 101 on my list without even intending to. Whoops.

Friday I had to leave work early because my sinuses were so congested that I couldn't even hear. I went home and took a ridiculously hot bath thinking I could sweat out my cold because I swear this has worked in the past. Maybe I made that up though. I skipped out on a happy hour because I didn't want to risk my 40 mile bike ride adventure. I had to finish it so I could strut into my office and yell "f you!" to my doubters.

We hit up Wal-fart, Dick's Sporting Goods and Target to try to find 2 tubings for my tires, a gel seat for my seat (because I knew my bony butt couldn't handle the entire ride), and a bike rack. Finding a bike rack was tough! We spent most of the evening doing that and getting the tubing in place (and I learned The Mr is pretty handy with a bike).

We woke up at 6am to start our journey. After a few hiccups (like trying to find the directions to the trail, having to pull over to readjust the bikes on the bike rack, taking a wrong turn) we finally arrived at the trail around 8am. And so started our journey...


The crappy bike rack.


My brave little Huffy!


My hot bony ass in a sweet pair of bike shorts. If you're ever considering riding a long distance, WEAR BIKE SHORTS. I will never judge a person again. That padding saved my life.

Riding a bike is pretty easy. Riding a bike that hasn't been ridden since 1996 is tricky. I felt like my back tire wasn't at optimum inflation. We tried pumping it up several times but it just felt wrong. So I had to suck up riding 40 miles on a partially inflated tire.

Also - while I thought I was going at a pretty decent speed, a ton of old people were zipping past me. I felt kind of like a turd but I kept on pedaling.

Mile 10. Halfway to the PA line. I was feeling great. The ride was fairly easy. At about mile 5 I gave up my gel seat to The Mr who was convinced his wiener was going to fall off. I realized at that point why women are the ones who have babies...

By about mile 15, I started to feel it. We had probably stopped about 10 times to either drink, snack, pump air into my tire or let The Mr's wang take a break from a hard seat jamming into his nuts. It had been about 2.5 hours at this point and the trail turned into one loooong incline.

I may have whimpered a little as we kept on biking but I knew the end was near.

PA, hooray!


For those that doubted me...

I have to say I was disappointed that there wasn't a big sign that said, "Welcome to Pennsylvania! You are officially a badass for biking all the way here!" We just came across the sign and went, "Oh? I guess we made past the MD/PA line..."

I was excited to bike back because I knew the first 5 miles was going to be downhill. I felt like we flew back.

We stopped off for a picture. Okay, not really - The Mr still needed his nut breaks but I wanted a picture.

When I hit the last 5 miles, I really started to feel the pain again. I wasn't pedaling very fast and I had a constant look of pain plastered to my face. I may have scared a few kids but I'm not sure.

But fuck yeah - I did it. The Mr declared that the next time I decide I want to bike 40 miles, we need to build up to it. What I thought would be a 3 hour bike ride was a 4.5 hour bike ride. Oy. I didn't take into consideration that we'd stop so much.

One of the positive things that came out of this experience is that The Mr and I are pretty stoked about biking. It's a great activity and it'll make me feel like less of a turd to bike to a location in Baltimore that is less than 2 miles from my house.

How was everyone else's weekend?