Mik's New Ride

I last rode my bike in August*. After that I became pretty focused on getting myself (and Walter) ready for Long Beach, so I put the bike away.

Luckily, Mik bought a new road bike last week, which only means that she's gonna kick my ass even more than she used to on her hybrid bike, but I'm a glutton for punishment, so we took the bikes out for an easy ride this morning. We were hoping that Clarence was going to be able to join us for her first post-childbirth-ride, but it turned out that she had too many other family plans and she is still at the place in her life where Abby's feedings and naps rule the schedule.

I mean, seriously, wouldn't you skip a ride for this? ADORABLE!!!

Ah yes...I remember those days all too well, the ones where my entire life was dictated by naps and feedings...but on further reflection, I realize that my life is still somewhat ruled by my kids' schedules, only now it's all about driving them to where ever they need/want to be.

We wanted an easy ride since Mik is still getting used to road-bike position and I haven't been on a bike since August, so we decided to go to Tideland's Park in Coronado and ride up and down the strand.**

Funny side note, when we got to Tidelands, the track club was there too. I swear, I AM NOT stalking them. I got to say hello to Anne, who was manning the aid station. Anne is a rockstar for all the volunteering work she does both at races and for weekend runs. I'm definitely looking forward to running regularly with my SDTC friends come January.

There's not really much to say about the ride itself. Mik got to play around with the Shimano gear shifting and discovered that her handlebars probably need some adjustments (she seems like she's leaning too far forward to break, and is putting too much pressure on her hands). We kept up a pretty good pace, and as usual, I can keep up with Mik for awhile, but by the end of the ride, she just pulled away from me.

Mik and her new ride...SUHWEEEET!

Some other road highlights and observations...

• The bike/runners path on the Silver Strand is two-typical bike lanes, meaning it is not particularly wide, but not so narrow either. There is plenty of room for both runners and riders, but all do need to be considerate and cautious and look for one another. For the most part, everyone abides by the written (and unwritten) rules of the road.
• We watched a runner almost get taken out by another cyclist because she (the runner) decided to do a u-turn and ran right in front of a cyclist who was about to overtake her, but who wasn't expecting her to flip a U right in front of him. Isn't the rule to ALWAYS make sure that you have clearance before you move into another lane? I never even start walking on a path unless I know for sure that nobody behind me is going to run up my ass...To me that's being both considerate AND safe. GAH!
• The foot of San Diego Bay was REALLY SMELLY this morning. I mean it's always sort of smelly where, as Elsie in biology-teacher-mode would explain, "the some-multi-syllabic-bacteria are doing-something-very-scientific-sounding causing rot and decay." In other words, It's a circle of life kind of thing...and this morning it was a MORE SMELLY THAN USUAL circle of life kind of thing.
• Large sweaty men should NEVER wear white bike shorts...especially when wearing a cycling jersey with some kind of spiraling pattern on the back that appears to be pointing straight down...'nuff said. My comment to Mik was "that guy is clearly single because no wife would let her husband out of the house in that."
• Props to the cyclist who was out there this morning, tearing it up, who had one leg! Awesome!
• Do you ever ride/run along and check out all the swag that others are wearing that you also own? This morning, I saw peeps in SDTC t-shirts, SDRnR shirt, and one wearing a Long Beach 1/2 Swag Bag. 
• It was a truly beautiful morning for riding. After our batshit crazy weather here this week (high 90s on Wednesday, 100º on Thursday, it cooled off to about 80º yesterday), it was clear, and humid this morning. A clear sign that the winds have changed back to the offshore kind from the nasty Santa Ana winds that ruled this week. I did think it was about that time of year where I make everyone feel bad for me, having to live in this place, by posting some photos of the bay this morning. Sadly, I was trying to catch up with Mik, so I didn't stop to take any photos other than this one, which I took when we decided to turn around at 10 miles and head back.

Mik and I at the foot of San Diego Bay...just past the really smelly part, which is probably why we are smiling!

Hopefully, I saved some legs for tomorrow morning when Mik, Walter, Kat, and I are running in the Shelter Island 5K...the best 5K (IMHO) in San Diego County. Flat, fast, and ends with a full champagne buffet breakfast. We're going to see how fast Walter can run 3 miles so that he gets us a table! I'll get to see Irene & her husband, and hopefully Glenn there! Yay!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, and good luck to all the racers out there including Meg and BS who are in NYC this weekend and who, from her latest report, appear to be staying in a reasonable place this time, and not in a crack-shack (and I'm not talking about the kind of crack that I saw this morning from the dude in the white cycling shorts...I'm scared by this, I swear)...Anyway, good luck Meg!
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* On the off chance that you actually look back at my August post, please not that it is AUGUST and we are all bundled up as if it is a winter day (the blue faces are a camera trick and NOT as a result of the cold, but it was COOL that AUGUST morning), whereas today it is NOVEMBER, and I wished I had worn my cycling tank-top because it was a wee-bit-warm!


** We really did try to get others to ride with us this morning, and run with us tomorrow, but Betty and Alberta are in Cancun (pity, huh?) for a friend's wedding and Elsie is with The Statue since she's going to some conference in Washington DC this week.