Return to the Scene

A little less than a year ago, I bought my bike and went on my first real ride (as in, not in a parking lot) with a beginner's group hosted by the local triathlon club. It was pretty much the worst night of my life. I was totally unprepared to be riding in traffic and down hills and it was essentially a ten mile complete panic attack. I still remember the terror.

Yesterday I got an email that the triathlon club was hosting Monday night rides again, starting from the same spot. I'm pretty far behind where I want to be training-wise for the HIM, so any time I can get in on the bike needs to happen. Not going to lie though, the idea of going back to that specific spot for a ride made me pretty anxious. There's a really awesome Hunger Games reference I could make here. I don't want to include any spoilers, but I'm sure true fans can figure out what I'm thinking.

Only one other person showed up, and the two of us had a great ride. We started out on the same hilly panic attack route down a busy road in rush hour, with approximately 2 feet of shoulder in the "wide" spots. Then we went to some quieter neighborhoods and did some ridiculous climbs. My long rides have been on pretty flat terrain with a few short, steep climbs. This was more like mile long gradual inclines that had me sucking wind like crazy.

Elevation profile - pretend to be impressed even if you're not.

The exciting thing is that I wasn't gripping the brakes so hard my hands hurt in a panic on the downhills. Even flying down curves at 30mph wasn't fazing me. (They may not have been sharp curves, and that may not be flying to some, but it was to me.) My nerves were more at the level of when I check my grades  (my own grades, not grades I give my students) compared to last year when they were more at the level of hearing someone break your bedroom window in the middle of the night while you're all alone. 

However, it did make me a little nervous about my preparedness for the HIM - I need to get more hill work in, stat. 

In other news I received some almost decent race photos. 

This one has me almost smiling, eyes open, both feet possibly off the ground at LPM. Bonus, you can see the pretty water view in the background.

As I crossed the finish of the Rock and Roll DC half marathon, I swore that for once I was going to get a finish line photo where I wasn't pausing my Garmin.

Actually I think this means I didn't run hard enough

 I took this one after DC RnR. If only the photographer could have waited until I looked at her and stopped covering my medal. I felt more like that girl behind me looks.

Casi and I are pretty covered with the "proof" watermark here but Eric looks adorable before the race. So happy and unaware of what awaited him.

What's a fear that you have overcome?


Did anyone else get nervous looking up their grades (or finding out grades in some other way before they were online)? I strongly suspect this is not totally normal.