28.8 miles, 6 wineries, 2 flats and a whole lotta fun!

Before I go into my weekend fun I'll do a quick rundown of the gym.  Alright, truth be told, I can't remember anything.  All I know is I went 5 times last week and made sure Saturday was a day off so I could rest before my big ride on Sunday.  Saturday night we went to my mom's for dinner.  Let's just say my mom likes to serve dips.  The yummy kind, with lots of calories, that are downright irresistible!  Then there were the steaks and baked potato.  I called it carb loading and tried to let it go.

On Sunday I got up bright and early and loaded the car full of bikes and fellow riders.  We drove up to Healdsburg and promptly got ourselves in gear (no pun intended, well, kind of).  I was in front initially, which, though I'd never thought about it before, is nerve wracking.  Good thing we stopped around mile 3 for our first winery.  I'll spare you all the gory details and summarize - ride, taste, pick up lunch, ride, taste, eat lunch, ride, taste, ride, get a flat, ride, taste, ride, taste, ride, taste.  We heard the old, "isn't wine tasting on a bike a bad idea?"  #1 - no worse than in a car and #2 - you don't even get a chance to get drunk given all the riding between tastings.  Unless you were really trying of course.  As the day wore on I did more and more sharing and spitting.  I had to drive us home and I didn't want to drink all the calories I was burning.

This is us at our first winery, Simi.  I'd post some pictures from our last one but they are NSFW.  Kidding.  Here's one from Francis Ford Coppola's winery.

We look like pros don't we?  I had a great time, these ladies know how to have fun!  Only bummer was my clothes were almost too tight.  They were all purchased when I weighed 20-30 pounds less than I do now.  But I am certainly not going to go out and buy "fat" biking clothes so I went with it.  So on the last leg of the ride (ha! another pun) my thighs starting hurting.  I had that burning pain I got on that 50 mile ride I did when I was pregnant.  It's the kind that hurts even more after you stop.  Ouch!  But I took some ibuprofen when I got in the car and that was the end of it.

I felt fine today, just a bit tired.  For the first time I wanted to skip the gym.  I think it was partially the rain (man did we get lucky on the weather for our ride because a storm arrived today).  Anyway, I got to the gym and was tortured about how to do my run.  I can't tell you how much I hate the idea of 25 minutes on a treadmill but it was chilly and rainy outside.  I asked the Ian (gym guy/trainer) if I would freeze my butt off if I ran outside - "just do it" he tells me.  So I did and while there were chilly moments it was actually really refreshing most of the time.  It was mostly misty but it started to actually rain the last 5 minutes or so and I got wet.  I was imagining passerby to be thinking, "look at that super dedicated woman running in the rain."  I like projecting positive thoughts onto others, most especially when it comes to thoughts about yours truly.

I finally remembered to wear my Garmin.  I'm super pleased with the results.  I averaged 4.8 mph and ran 2.01 miles in 25 minutes.  Yay!  I was worried I might be running 4mph or even slower!  I'll take 4.8 any day of the week.  Why would I even worry about that anyway, who cares how fast I'm running?  Sometimes on my run my mind tries to think negative thoughts and I am working on training it not to do that.  Ever.  I am running for crying out loud!  The last thing I should be doing is criticizing myself.  After my run I did chest and triceps with core work and finished up with some nice stretches.  I left the gym feeling very glad that I resisted the urge to drive home after work.

Oh, I almost forgot.  My weight on Friday was 188.8, .2 pounds down.  I'll take it!  Night all.