Thunder, Lightening

I am beginning to love Mondays...it's bike riding day! (Well, at least until full school craziness kicks in!) We decided on a 30-miler yesterday even though the sky was looking scary. We didn't see any lightening (at first) or hear any thunder, so off we went. We actually start our rides from a point in the trail where, if you turn to the right, there's a 2 mile out and back path. To our left is an 8 mile out and back. Yesterday, we started with the with the longer distance 1st to get that out of the way.

We managed to complete the entire 10 mile trail before we began to hear rumbling of thunder in the distance. It sounded far enough away, so we pushed on. About 2 miles later, we heard the boom of thunder in the distance. It was getting closer. Next, we saw lightening. It was still pretty far away, so we pushed on. By the time we made it to our turnaround point on the 8 mile segment, the lightening was close enough to make us finish up as quickly as possible. By the time we were back at the parking area, we decided to skip the remaining 2 miles because my friend still had to ride her bike home. (Luckily, it's less than 5 miles away!)

Overall, it was fantastic ride. I still felt like I could have gone faster and at the end, I wished I had more time to ride a little more. I never feel like that on a run. Bill mentioned on his blog that he sometimes dreads running. Well, that has been me lately. I just don't look forward to it. I used to be okay once I got started, but lately that just isn't the case. Usually, even after I get going, I am wondering why I'm even running if I'm not enjoying it. Really, I keep doing it because I've signed up for the 1/2 in January. I know that if I want that to be even a remotely pleasant experience, I'd better keep training. Even if it means just going through the motions. I don't know know where my running motivation has gone off to, I just wish it would come back. Soon!

So enough of that. When I made it home last night a little after 7 pm, the kiddo was already asleep! I guess her 1st day of school wore her out. She woke up around 8:30 pm wide awake and didn't go back to sleep until I agreed to lay down with her around 9:30 pm. Then, she woke up at 2:30 am! I thought I was dreaming when I heard her say, "I had a good day at school today, Mommy!" I opened my eyes and there she was, staring at me with that cute grin on her face. She told me all about her friends and her new teacher. Yes, she talked my ear off until 4:00 am! So no, I did not get up at 4:30 to run and do home work. I finally got out of bed around 5:30 and finished up some of my Finance homework before getting ready for work. Barbara...I can't believe you love this stuff! We're looking at financial statements and doing ratios right now. Fun, fun!

Biking Stats
Conditions - nice! 80-something with a breeze
Distance - ~ 18 miles
Total bike time - 1 hour, 15 minutes
Pace - 14.4 mph