Whew!

I guess I'm making up for lost time.  I started yesterday with a huge workout at the gym.  I have not done any strength training since before I started running, so I have pretty much forgotten everything I once knew (not much!) about it.  Even though we joined the gym a coupla months ago, with the exception of a few visits for cardio, I have not been.  But this was my third time in a week, as I am trying to establish another routine.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the stairmaster, and was confident with those activities.  Then, I descended into complete nerd-dom and felt totally self-conscious among all the grunty guys as I picked my way through the machines looking for the machine chest press and rotary lat pull down as outlined in my "Ultimate Body Perfect Workouts for Women" book that I held clutched to my chest along with my iPhone, which I dutifully logged all my lifts into.  I know once I get my routine down I'll sink into the background, but I felt ridiculously obvious as I tried to balance all my gear from machine to machine.  I've got this cool program for the phone that lists every exercise known to man and makes it really easy to keep track of your reps and things, pleasing my geeky heart to no end.

I spent the rest of the day doing who knows what, then went out for a bike ride with Tom and T, a 30 mile ride to Tahoe City and back.   Yeah, the ride kicked my butt and was further and faster than I would have gone on my own.  Yay!  30.3 miles, 2:02 moving time, av. speed 14.8.  Gary goes on to say that we climbed 2124 feet, but that just seems like too high a number.  Maybe 1000, but more than that just seems excessive.

Tom and I left from our house, and met up with T maybe 3 miles into the ride.  She was off the front like a shot, and remained there for the first 1/3 or so of the ride.  Tom (bless his heart) hung back with me, reinforcing tips he's given me on cadence and utilizing my energy smartly, and -- for the first time! -- I worked on drafting.  I think this is the skill for me.  What a difference getting on that wheel makes!  It took lots of concentration, and if I saw something shiny I'd look back up and be way off the back.  This'll need some practice.

T wanted to climb up to Alpine, but I put the caboosh on that because by this point the morning's workout was starting to make itself known.  We continued on mostly flatly to Tahoe City, then turned around for the mostly downhill ride home.  Throughout the ride I paid lots of attention to my cadence (and Tom was there to remind me when I forgot) and shifting patterns to keep me at a high rpm.  These little lessons are starting to soak in.  We blasted on 89, dropped T at her car, then Tom went on ahead to get home (on a huge time crunch, him) while I slowly limped the last bit home -- I was really feeling worn out at this point.  Then, OMG, I actually CHICKED 3 guys!  Granted, it was 3 middle aged-ish Mexican guys on their cholo bikes in street clothes, but I'll take my victories where I can get 'em.  These guys were just amblin' down the road when I passed them going all of maybe 10 mph . . . they all got their macho up when I passed and started hootin' and hollerin' and trying to catch me.  I looked back at them, smiled, said "Mas rapido, andale, amigos" put the hammer down and actually left them in my dust!  Omy!

Then Tom came and picked me up in the truck so I didn't have to ride the big bad ol' hill to our house.  I remain such a loser! ;-)

And we met up with T and her husband at Smokey's for some BBQ and beer, and all was well with the world.