Back in the Saddle and Suicidal Wildlife

The weather and my schedule has really put a hurt on my bike riding time. The rides I have done have been decent but I know that I just need more time on the bike before this triathlon. Luckily I'm only doing the sprint distance so it is a 22k ride (almost 14 miles).

I was supposed to do a practice triathlon yesterday but I had a....medical situation...come up (more on that later, aren't you excited?!) so The Pilot and I headed out for a bike ride later in the morning. He got clipless pedals/shoes so it was his first ride with them and he did great! He didn't fall...yet. :) I told him it was just a matter of time.

He was so comfortable in fact that he decided to take a photo of my a$$. Not sure why it looks like I'm about to ride through the grass...

We got in 15 miles in a decent time (finally no wind!) so I was happy.

This morning I met up with my friend Holly. We both live within a couple miles of a bike trail so we both rode to the trail head to meet. Before I got to the trail head though, I encountered some suicidal wildlife. First, it was a flock of Canadian geese. These birds are everywhere around here! The babies have hatched and are learning to fly...and make a mess just like their parents. They are mean, dumb animals. And I love animals but these things are just dumb. They nest is weird places, they hiss if you get too close and will chase you! So I'm on a path and there are at least a dozen crossing in front of me. I wasn't sure what to do. I can barely whistle so I did my best to make some noise so they would at least look up. Luckily they moved just enough to maneuver past them. They weren't happy about it but crisis was averted.

Then, right before I got to the trail head, a bunny ran out in front of me. I swerved, the bunny probably crapped itself and we narrowly missed a collision. When I made it to the trail head and was telling Holly about the bunny, a runner who had witnessed the near bunny collision caught up to us and he told me that he was sure I was going to crash and was worried for me. How nice! At least someone was nearby in case the bunny met my tire and I ended up a$$ over tea kettle.

Stop! I is a cute little bunny wabbit. Please don't run me over.

It was pretty uneventful from there and Holly and I just enjoyed our ride. We haven't had a chance to hang out lately so it was great to catch up with her. And chatting with someone while you ride makes the miles go by so much faster! Before I knew it, I was back home an my bike computer showed 23 miles. Not bad! It was pretty slow on the way out (boo for the headwind!) but the way back was easy and fast (yeay for tailwind!). When I say fast, that is a relative term. I was only averaging 16 mph on my way home but that's good for me.