The bike ride that wasn’t meant to be

Have you ever had one of those training days that just wasn’t destined to be? I had one of those Saturday, and it drove me crazy. It didn’t start out that way though. I checked the weather on my iPhone Friday night, and it said sunny, clear and about 45 degrees. That was a little colder than I would have liked, but I can always put on some extra clothes to stay warm.

My first mistake was in not getting my car all packed Friday night. Heck, I didn’t even get my gear out of the bedroom. When I woke up Saturday morning, I realized my mistake, and had to wait for my wife to wake up before I started gathering up my clothes and such. This was actually fortunate as it seemed overcast or foggy outside. I made myself a cup of coffee, and hoped that it would clear up in the next hour or so while I waited. 10 minutes later the bedroom door opened and my wife emerged. So much for having time for the weather to clear!

I grabbed my stuff, ate a quick breakfast, finished my coffee, loaded my bike on the back of my car and headed out. If you’ve never been here, Houston is very flat. In an attempt to get in some hill work I drive to Magnolia, about 30 minutes away. It isn’t super hilly there, but compared to Houston it is mountainous. So I’m driving along, watching the outside temperature at 46, the flags flapping in the strong wind, and realized the sun had broken through and the sky was clearing. Reaching for my sunglasses, I realized I’d left them at home. I continued driving while I pondered my options. Turn around and get them (which got less appealing as I continued driving further from home), go without today, or ride with my prescription glasses. Given the windy and sunny conditions I decided the only real option was to go back home to get my glasses. I fussed at myself the entire drive home for wasting time. Unfortunately it had been too long since I’d ridden on the road and I just forgot my sunglasses.

Half an hour later I was back on the road, again headed to Magnolia. I got a little bit further this time, when I realized I didn’t have my helmet! I know it’s crazy, but I actually considered going without it for a split second. Having recently bounced my head/helmet on the road, that idea didn’t persist very long and I turned around yet again. At this point I was very irritated with myself, and thought seriously about abandoning the ride. If I’d had something else to do it would have been over at this point. After one hour of driving, I was still at home waiting to start the ride.

The third time was the charm. I made it to my starting location just fine. I put on all my clothes, loaded up my bike, jumped on and headed down the road. I didn’t make it one block before I realized that the wind was pretty darn cold, and I probably wasn’t dressed warmly enough. I’ll be the first to admit it, I don’t like being cold on the bike. I’d seen some other riders go by while I was getting ready, and they were in shorts and short sleeves. I had on pants, a long sleeve shirt and a wind breaker vest and was still cold! I turned around, again, went back to my car and re-attached my sleeves to my wind breaker. I headed off, for good this time.

Aside from being a little shaky on the road at first, the bike ride went great. I rode made it 40 miles in just under 2.5 hours. Not a particularly quick pace, but a nice distance considering the wind and how long it had been since I’d been on the road. When I was done my butt was sore, my legs were tired, I was starving, but I’d finished the ride that didn’t want to start.

Sunday I finished a 7 mile run at a quicker pace than I’d been running before my injury, almost race pace. A few hours later I swam 1.3 miles. All in all a very productive training weekend, the second in a row. Considering how I almost abandoned the bike ride before it started, didn’t want to run Sunday because my legs were tired, and really didn’t want to swim far Sunday evening because I was really tired, I start the week very excited. The moral of the story is: If you quit before you start you cannot succeed. Just take the first step and see what happens!