March Mania

                           March was crazy-
         Started out with our first alone trip in charge of our bikes.

We thought we were so cool, because we had a bike rack on the back of her car and we kinda knew how to use it. We got the bikes on and off without losing either of them.

    



 Renee and I did our first
        60 mile ride around
 Lake Washington in Seattle.
         What a beautiful ride.

    


This ride was the first of many falls for Renee. I'm so glad I ride behind her so I can first of all make sure she is OK, then get the camera out and yes get picutres.

We had to go to a Farmers function that night, totally enjoying the major Bike Brain..

Us in the bar... then 1 hr later...







The rest of the month did a
30 miler
Two-- 70 miler's
and a 14 mile ride... Yes getting callous on my behind ...

Starting of the long rides

     Starting in Feb 2010 I began to go on longer ride's. I did the 36 miles to Morton. Then did a 40 mile ride. At the end of the month Denny and I went to Richland and Pam, Paul, Craig and I did our first 51 miler. And when you let Paul pick the ride it is alot of HILLS...Craig and Paul decided (without me knowing) that they would ride right next to me so I would get used to ppl being right on my butt. Ya I didn't like it - freaked me out . I kept feeling like I was giong to crash. I kept yelling at Craig to get away from me.
     The last 10 miles, part of it was thru and park by the lake. For some reason Pam thought that the whole park for just for her. Ppl were walking on the sideway-- she was weaving around ppl, saying "on your left", then she got to one guy walking his dog and he wasn't moving fast enough for her she starts yelling at him to get out of her way ... turned out he was "blind" LOL. OMG that was sooooo funny. She turns into psycho woman.

     When we got home on Sunday I went out and got another 32 miles in. I opted out of any hills that day.

Getting Started

     In Sept I started training. We already had a treadmill and some other exercise equipment. I had borrowed 2 mountain bikes from my aunt Ruth and uncle Jim. I went and bought a bike trainer so I could train inside in the winter time. Pam started training also. She started a google calendar for us. Every day that we worked out (still do) we would put it on the calendar. We watched each other, and for me I would try and beat what she did for the day.

     I stopped smoking on Oct 19th. And I haven't touched one since.

      By Oct 31st (my b-day) I rode my age 43 miles on the trainer. Yes , by this time I had already bought the padded butt. You totally can't ride without that. I tried to ride outside when possible, weather permitting. For the next couple of month's  I tried to work out at least 45 mins a day. I would take at least one day off a week.

     We bought a Wii, so of course I had to get every workout I could that goes with it. I would try and do something different a couple times a week. Renee would come over with her trainer and we would put a movie on in the basement and ride for hours.

      On Feb 6, 2010 I did my first long solo ride from my house to Morton. It is a total of 36 miles but 1/3 of it is up hill. I was so excited. One of the best parts of the ride was going across the Mayfield Lake bridge. At that time there was road construction. So when I got to the bridge traffic was stopped on my side, I rode right past all the cars and asked the flagger guy if I could go across after all the cars went. So I had traffic stopped going both ways on the bridge and got to ride all alone. It was beautiful.

     I then rode to Mossyrock and stopped at the gas station. I called Denny to see if he would come and pick me up. He couldn't believe where I was LOL.... I told him I was going to keep riding until he found me.

I made it 5 mile outside of Morton. Those last couple mile's were totally up hill. Denny pulled into the veiw point and watched me ride up to him. As I got to him he kept backing up, I told him to STOP... because he was my stopping point and if he didn't stop I couldn't.

    I was so excited to get that far.  Then we went home and had to go to my brother-in-law Jason's birthday party. I got there and "bike brain" had really set in.

     "Bike Brain" is kinda like being drunk without the drinking or hangover part. I love it...

Why I started exercising...

     My father died at the age of 43 of a heart attack. I have always feared the year I turned 43. Well 2009-2010 was the year I turned 43.So I have decided in my mind that I needed to do something to honor him and come to find out it is changing my life.
    
     It all started July of 2009. Every year the STP (Seattle to Portland -204 mile bicycle ride) goes by my house. For years the kids used to sit in Denny's (my husband) truck and hi-five all the riders that would go by. Well last year when they were riding thru Chehalis I said I wanted to do it. I told Denny I wanted to do it, I can't remember what he said. Im sure he laughed just like most of the people I said it to did. I texted Renee (my boss and friend) that I wanted to do it. Im sure after laughing....  She texted me back that she would hold me to it.
I said OK.

     Now what you need to know about me is ... I have NEVER really exercised a day in my life. I also was a smoker for most of my adult life. So for me to say I wanted to ride a bike 204 miles, NO-ONE thought I would last a month of training.

     I had posted on Facebook that I was going to do the STP, my aunt Pam saw it and said "if I was going to do it then she was." Then my cousin Craig said if " Teri can do it then he would do it also." And my poor uncle Paul (who had already done the STP twice-- both times in 1 day (he's nuts LOL) he decided to support us by riding it also.

    So by the end of the summer of 2009 there were 5 of us doing it. Mind you all of them thought I wasn't going to really do it.... I proved them WRONG....