The Return of Family Fun Day

Last night, The Husband was on the phone with a friend who had planned to go mountain bike racing today. The Husband had said no because he has been working a lot lately and has only had one day off per week for the past two weeks. He knew I would not be happy with his taking off to go ride. Knowing he's been in a crappy mood lately (because of work) I said he *should* go race. We looked up the race, saw it was at a big county park, and decided to reinstate Family Fun Day.

Instead of sleeping in, I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out for the day. We'd have brought The Dog but she's not all that into behaving around other people. We got to the park with no trouble and the kids wandered around while The Husband got ready for the race. Finally, it was time to begin. The kids and I placed our chairs along the route and, of course, I brought the camera along. It was quite fun and we enjoyed cheering everyone along.

Here's the start. The Husband is third from the right (247).

This was the first time The Husband rode this trail so he was not particularly happy after lap 1. He crashed somewhere along the loop!

Feeling much better at the end of lap 2, The Husband was in the groove...He was totally attacking the climb.

As I said, the finish is a somewhat steep climb. Just as he was coming around the curve to the finishing climb, The Husband's shoe came unclipped. It would take too much time to clip in and climb the hill so he improvised.

It should be noted that The Husband did, in fact, run past the bike you see in the far right corner and finished before him. I think the man was a bit unhappy about that. Everyone around cheered, though! In fact, The Husband's friends, who finished considerably behind him, even heard of the guy who ran his bike up the hill to the finish racing ALL THE WAY!

Breakin' the rules!

So we are officially over half-way through our long weekend and it has been dreamy. Yesterday morning, there was that horrific trip to the grocery that sells EVERYTHING. While getting groceries, we picked up one of these - except I'm not sure it's this exact one and we did not pay NEARLY that much! We put it together, which was a major pain in the ass task in and of itself, and neither The Boy nor The Girl has stopped playing since. The Boy even chose to shoot hoops over watching the flashy box! Now THAT is a feat! While the kids played ball, we did the yard work. Then, we stopped and had ice cream. It was such a great evening! I shot a bazillion photos and could not help but share this one of The Girl.

We ended up grilling for dinner, which was also great. It was an extremely nice and relaxing day.

Today, we slept in and then went on the bikes. We drove out to the park and went on an 11.5 mile ride. I rode the first half with The Boy; The Husband rode with The Girl. The Girl complained every bit of the way and I thought The Husband's head was going to explode! I rode back with her - and she was so much better for me. The Husband was already irritated with her when we began and I'd had my ride with The Boy to cool off, so it was a good switch. The ride back was good too, except The Boy rode up under me on a hill and I crashed. Small bruise on the leg, but it's all good. After the ride, we came home for lunch and went out for ice cream again. I figured I'd burned off a whole hell of a lot of calories and I needed to get them back before my body missed them! We're grilling again tonight, which will be great.

One more day off...hope it's a good one!

Pimp my ride

Last week, The Husband bought himself a new bike. I still have my same one and have been happy with it. The Husband was not. He likes to tinker and make things better. His decided to take his old bike and use the parts to pimp mine out. Here is his old bike.

As I said yesterday, the first thing he did was put the clipless pedals on my bike. I have to admit, they're kinda cool. I love my shoes, too. They're cute. Anyway, that was not enough for The Husband. Here is my bike when I got it...

Here is The Husband pimping my ride. I did not take a full "after" shot but you can sort of see what he did in these photos. He's so excited that he dropped "at least a pound" off my bike! LOL!

Voila! New bike! LOL! He's very pleased with himself. And, as I said, it rides pretty nicely. I put another 6 miles on it last night so now I'm over 150 miles. I've slowed down considerably in my riding but I'm hoping to ride more when the kids are out of school.

Break out the bubbly...it's time to celebrate!

I have officially broken the 100 mile mark! I have 101 miles on my bike, which means I have a mere 899 miles to go. I'm pretty excited about this momentous occasion. As much as I think The Husband is a total lunatic for this challenge, I'm glad he set it down and I'm thrilled that, so far, I'm actually making an attempt to meet it. My first official ride was March 9th. I cannot ride daily (and let's be honest, I've taken a few days off just because!) but all the same, in order to reach my goal of 1000 miles in a year, I must average just over 83 miles/month. In just over a month, I have ridden 101 miles. I believe I've ridden about 20 days, so my average is about 5 miles per day that I ride.

The best part of all this? I FEEL better! I am in better shape and the rides keep getting easier. That was the goal of the entire endeavor, but still - it's fun to realize and notice. I have not lost any weight but I am in better shape and I am more toned.

So - raise that glass and toast to me. If we celebrate enough, I'll have an excuse not to ride tomorrow! :)

Family Fun Night

If you hadn't noticed, there have not been many Family Fun Day posts lately. The weather has not been conducive to family fun over the past several weekends. This weekend is no exception...rain is expected today. With that in mind, we had our family fun last night.

The Girl got a new bike last weekend. It is the same as The Boy's bike. His is blue; hers is metallic purple. So last night was our first "big ride" together. We rode about 7 miles and the kids did extremely well. We knew The Boy would do well - he and The Husband went on an 11 mile trip shortly after getting his bike about a month ago. We had our doubts about The Girl, though. Like I said, she did an amazing job and not once did she get off her bike to push!

Off for a quick ride/run with The Husband this morning. The week of vacation is coming to an end and I'm so sad about that. I really enjoyed my week home, even if the kids drove me batty when they were home together. We are *definitely* going to have to set some serious ground rules for the summer or I am going straight to the loony bin!

The big FIVE-OH!

As of this evening, I have 50 miles on my bike! That's pretty exciting considering I've been keeping track since March 9th! Actually, I've ridden 10 times including tonight. For the most part, I average 3.5 - 4 miles/day but I do not ride Wednesdays (The Girl has gymnastics) and I try to ride a bit longer on the weekends when I can. Tonight, I rode 7 miles. My longest ride so far was Sunday - The Husband and I rode just over 9 miles.

Only 950 miles to go.................(and my "prize" for hitting 1000 miles? The Husband says new tires! LOL!)

11 Miles

Saturday, The Husband bought me a cycling computer for my bike. He told me Saturday morning he was going to buy it. He issued a challenge: put 1000 miles on the bike in a year. 1000 miles. On the bike. In one year. Are you freaking kidding me?! Shall we do the math?

1000 miles/52 weeks = ass pain (or funeral...unless I beat him with the bike, in which case there still will be a funeral - just not mine)

In reality, it comes to 19.23 miles/week or 2.75 miles/day. That wouldn't be bad in a perfect world where one could actually ride daily. But life? It's so not perfect. Not even close. Today I did not have time to ride. I left for work at 7am and by the time I got home (gymnastics/baseball & dinner out), it was 8:30pm.

As of this moment, I have 11 miles on the bike. The good news is I have only 989 miles to go! And, if you see me in the garage spinning that front tire, do not tell anyone. It'll be OUR secret!

Let's hear it for padded bike shorts!

A few weeks ago, after our horrible, ridiculously long wonderfully pleasant first ride, I purchased some cute, baggy padded bike shorts because my ass was killing me they are so stylish. I had not had the chance to try them out yet and it was beautiful out, so The Husband and I went for a bike ride today around the neighborhood (about 3 1/2 miles or so).

Oh. My. Lord! What an amazing difference they made. I can sit down without any pain or discomfort! What a novel idea! Hell - I'm still wearing the shorts! I may wear them everywhere from now on!

Family Fun Day...Act II

Today was our second real family fun day. The first family fun day was not nearly that fun...until it was over! Today was FAR more enjoyable. We loaded up the bikes and cook-out stuff and headed to the park. We got lost along the way, but we made it. Once we got settled and unloaded we did a bit of exploring. There was a cool welcome center that housed a snake exhibit. The Boy and The Girl LOVED this. It was pretty cool. We then headed up to the truck where one of The Husband's friends met us. The Husband and his friend took off on a 4.5 mile technical mountain bike path while The Kids and I tooled around the park. We went to the playground for a while and just hung out. Finally, we returned to the truck. The Boy was almost finished with book 7 of the Harry Potter series and he was begging me to let him finish (he was mid-way through the final chapter). So...we sat there and read. I could only imagine what The Husband would think...he drove us all the way to this park on a beautiful day, and we sat there and read! It was NOT a strenuous day for me...and don't think THAT did not go unappreciated!!

The Husband's friend returned alone...he'd broken his bike. Not long after that, The Husband returned. We cooked out and had a blast. Then, The Kids decided to feed the geese (there were 5 of them). They did that for a while and then it was time to pack up and go home.