Spring rocks

First, let me just say how crazy - and rockin' - Nancy is.

She PR'ed in the Vancouver half marathon on Sunday, and still felt up to doing 1 hour, 45 minutes with me this morning. How cool is that - and how lucky am I!

We left the club at 5:15 and did a huge loop - 10.25 miles in all. Though we both felt a little tired and sore, the sunlight so early in the morning perked us up, and we had a lovely run.

I skipped my weight lifting today mostly because my legs - especially hamstrings and quads right at the knee - are still kind of sore from earlier in the week. And it also gave me a chance to get some "girl time," as my daughter calls it, with Aleks. I've been feeling a little off since I got home from Germany, and it was a nice relief to hang with a friend and not have our heart rates be up above 140. :-)

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I felt like I'd gotten a lot done at work. So in the late afternoon, I made the decision to bike home. Lately, I always keep a bicycle in my office, partly to tease me into riding, partly so I can consider commuting home. Today it worked out perfectly - I was able to leave at a reasonable hour, and I didn't have to pick up the kids.

I chose a somewhat convoluted route home to avoid traffic and get as many rockin' downhill parts as possible, because a huge climb no matter which route I took was inevitable. Today I took my punishment in the form of Lakemont Blvd.

The cool thing about Lakemont is, if you start to question why you're riding that hill, all the alternatives suck even more. Or are fabulous, if you like a sufferfest. So I just pushed on at something like 47 rpm - horrible - and 5.5 mph.

Then again, coasting at 40 mph down the other side doesn't suck one bit.

I actually made it home in 1 hour, 9 minutes (1 hour 3 minutes of riding time). Normally at that time of day my commute takes between 45 and 60 minutes. So I maybe didn't save time, but I didn't waste much - and I arrived home in an excellent mood instead of stressed out from traffic and gas prices!