Recovery Week!

So it's only been two weeks with the triathlon club, but I think with all the meeting new people, new longest bike rides, and meetings to learn stuff, I've earned this recovery week. The two weeks on/ one week recovery seems like it will be nice because the next recovery isn't *that* far away.

After a nap yesterday, I was able to perk up enough to make the collards and onions dish I made last year to use up my greens from last weeks farm box. Then I ate a third of it for dinner, along with a giant strawberry milkshake. I'm soooo lucky to have a stomach that doesn't hate me.  The strawberries were from the farm too, so maybe it was like a family reunion in my stomach.

The hardest part of the bike ride this weekend was in my head (if this link works, this was the course we rode on). I just got the clipless pedals (and the cute sandals that I linked to in my previous post), and that meant that when I was riding, there was a constant low-level fear of falling over whenever I slowed down. After about 12 miles, we took a break and I was very happy to get all the way off the bike and re-set my brain a little, but towards the end of the ride, I was barely holding it together. I felt like crying at how nice the ride leader was being for hanging back with me, I felt like crying at how scared I felt when there wasn't anything scary going on ... There was probably some low blood sugar going on in addition to the brain meltdown, but I sure look forward to not being mentally done before the ride is over.

I had to walk the bike up a hill when my breathing and mental freak-out got the better of me, but the people who were keeping me company were able to ride as slow as I was walking.  That was pretty awesome to watch, and gives me something to work on.  It would be great to be so sure of the bikes handling that you could keep churning up the hills like that at such a slow speed.

Tomorrow, I'm riding to work which is an easy ride, and I'll use the pedals and shoes, and I'll be happier about it, or else. Then after work tomorrow, I'll take my new veggies home and then ride my bike to the pool to go swimming, and it will be a delicious summery day, except instead of leaving my bike on my friends front lawn, I'll be locking it with a U and cable lock and then paying to swim. Whatever.