Saturday, O-dark-thirty...

...it goes a little something like this:

(friday night, tapas, paella, dark Spanish beer, Maria, friends, get home at 1230am, try to grab necessities...lay down in bed, fall asleep around 230am, set alarm clock for 430am)

sleep through alarm,
miss one text,
phone rings next to bed.

(a brief conversation with one the of guys I was supposed to meet, I am still in lala-land...his parting words are "goodnight" and he heads out for the ride. I walk back to the bedroom, and crawl into bed)

Outside, as I tried to go back to sleep, I could hear the rain tapping on the window and the wind running across the roof of the apartment. I kept feeling this sense of guilt for not going. It was like someone was poking me in the chest saying:

Get up, get on your bike!!!!!

I tried a few times to roll off the bed, with absolutely no luck. My body dug into the mattress in a last ditch effort to hold the line of sleep. And I won this one.

When I got to work Monday, my boss told me I made the right choice. He dropped out of the ride early as I guess it was not the gentlemen's ride I had assumed - so good for him on the recon. I am more into LSDs right now, and I don think I need a 45 mile hammerfest quite yet. 60-90 minutes on the trainer has me riding better, but the distance is the biggest challenge for me still. But who rides a 100 mile cross race? Someone who is lost...

As of last Friday, I have a riding buddy! I got Maria an early b-day gift bike! I kind of see it as a b-day gift for me as well - I am really stoked that she wants to ride again. We rode around the complex on Friday after work making sure everything clicked the way it should, and then we rode to her Grandparents house on Sunday - and to the bakery! She wanted to make the 17mile trek from our home to her parents, and that is a great sign! We already have Sunday rides mapped out to her P's for cards, BBQ, and pooltime. The summer is off to a GREAT start!