I Love Weekends!

Even though I didn't swim yesterday, I still have to log this one in the "excellent day" category. I did my grocery shopping, balanced my checkbook, finished the remaining laundry, AND went for a good bike ride up in the mountains. Oh, and let's not forget -- I also ate some delicious pizza.

Hey, it's not my fault! Team Evergreen made me do it!

You see, as part of my 2012 resolution to engage in more social activities, I had decided to go do a bike ride with some folks from the team that sponsors and organizes the Triple Bypass. They put on organized rides every Sunday during the cycling season, and this one sounded very appealing. It was the "Tour of Evergreen", which was a 31-mile ride starting at the Evergreen Lake House and bopping over several of the local peaks. It sounded challenging, but not completely insane, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm guessing there were 25 or 30 riders who left the parking lot together. I was tempted to try to stay with the one of the early packs, but was worried that I might be too fatigued to push that hard after Saturday's Highgrade ride. So I backed off, figuring that one of the groups behind me would suit me better. The folks in front pulled away, and were soon completely out of sight on the winding road. Shortly thereafter, I came to a fork in the road -- and had no idea which way the other bikers had gone. Since I had assumed I'd always have people to follow with a group this size, I had declined to take one of the offered maps; this left me with the option of either giving up, or hoping that someone would come along who knew where they were going.

Fortunately, the latter turned out to be the case. A charming young lass named Erin took pity on me, and kindly agreed to hold back at my pace throughout the rest of the ride. She had a map, knew the area pretty well, and was willing to patiently answer my questions about other Team Evergreen rides and local cycling opportunities. She also listened to my propaganda for the Foothills Masters Swim Team, and humored me by saying she might show up at a workout some day. So even though the wind was blowing (fiercely, in some spots) and the hills were challenging, it turned out to be a delightful ride!

At one point, though, we mistakenly followed another rider straight up the hill when (we discovered later) we should've turned. This cut several miles off the nominal route. I didn't mind, though -- we still got in a good hard ride.

At one point, we saw about 8 large elk right beside the highway. While stopped at a traffic light, I tried to take a photo, but apparently hurried too much because I knew the light would be changing. I didn't get the shot. But we turned and rode right up alongside them for a bit before the herd got spooked and ran off down the hill. (It's a good thing they didn't turn toward us, or it could've been a scary situation.)

Anyway, it was a fabulous ride, even with the blustery weather. And since the team had scheduled the post-ride get-together for Beau Jo's Pizza, I was also able to fulfill my craving for Nature's Most Perfect Food. Of course, I consumed far more calories than the ride had burned, but I'm going to rationalize that by saying that those calories went directly into building more muscles that I'll be able to use this weekend at the State Championship Swim Meet. (That sounds scientifically plausible, doesn't it?)

And speaking of my training and fitness, did any Simpsons fans recognize how this picture relates to my ongoing flexibility issues?

It's a screen capture from the episode where Bart and Lisa are exposed to radiation from a Halloween candy X-ray machine, and are transformed into superheroes Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl. I figured maybe I could use a picture of Stretch Dude to remind me to do my hamstring exercises. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Anyway, I hope to ride with Team Evergreen again, though my Sunday coaching schedule may make that difficult. In any case, though, I know how lucky I was to find another rider to shepherd me through the ride -- so next time I'll make sure to grab a map.

I hope your weekend was also productive and satisfying, and that it put you in a great mood for tackling your Monday. Have a great week!