HOLY FREEZING TOES, BATMAN!

This weekend was great!

Friday night I took my mom, dad, and Mike out for Mother's Day in Flint. It was nice to sit around and talk about other times in our lives. Such as the time that a man tried to purchase me in Tijuana when I was 6, or the time that my mom had spinners on her 59 Ford, or the time that my Uncle broke the axle on his car when he was 16 and my Grandfather had to drive north to pick up him, my father, and the car.

I learned that families are amazing units and I am blessed that my family grew up together. My family has had an amazingly interesting life, in a very typical way. I love that about the Warstler/Chrysler clan.

My parents grew up together, have known each other their entire lives. This quality is rare, but makes for great stories!


Saturday morning I got up early to go swim with FAST at the Schoolcraft pool. It was hot and my arms ached. The pool being hot I have no control over, but the arms aching was 100% my fault.

After swimming I grabbed breakfast with the old crew and then headed to ILRA for the 2010 Bike Demo Days where I froze my tushy off from 10:30 - 2pm. I had a blast! It was rainy, windy and freezing cold, but so much fun.

I ended up not having enough time to get in my long run, so I decided rather than to try to squeeze it in elsewhere I will just chalk last week up to being a run recovery week. Meh.


Sunday I got up early (Again! Twice in one weekend! Who is this girl?!?) and went down to Hines for a 4 hour, 60 mile bike ride. And here is why people say that I am crazy. After this ride, I agree with you.

~It was in the low 30's when I arrived.

~I have no cold weather riding clothes.

~Neccessity begets innovation.

~Through some trial and error I ended up with a solution to everything, except my frozen toes.

~Frozen toes, FYI, suck.

~I wore my biking gloves and 1 pair of socks on my hands.

~I did not have frozen fingers. This made me happy.

~I wore a tri top under two technical turtle necks, under my jersey. I was on the cool side of comfortable even with all of this on.

~I wore running tights under my racing tri shorts. Not once did my tushy or anything else hurt. I foung the perfect pair of racing shorts!

~I finished the ride in one piece, exactly 60 miles in just over 4 hours.

~I did 3 loops total, starting with my car at the Newburgh Point Rest Area on Hines Drive.

~Loop #1 was from Newburgh Point (NP) out to the Inkster overpass and back for 15 point something miles.

~ Loops #2 and #3 were from NP to Ford Road and back, with my ODO reading exactly 60 miles when I rolled into the parking lot for the last time.

~I had to play mental games a lot in the last loop.

~This ride was as much mental training as it was physical training.

~ At one point I honestly considered packing up and going home to complete the ride in my basement on a trainer.

~At another point I considered calling Mike and having him pick me up and take me back to my car so I could leave. That consideration was quite fleeting, but it did happen. Full disclosure is my policy.

~I knew that if I did this, I would not hop on the trainer and I would be so mad at myself for quitting for no reason at all. Boredom is an evil mind-trick playing thing.

~My legs felt good and strong the entire ride and afterwards. Not a pain or even inkling of soreness.

~My endurance was on par - the ride was actually easy from a time in the saddle and leg motion standpoint. I kept my HR in zone 2 pretty much the entire ride. This is all about time in the saddle and getting the back used to endurance rides.

~The thing that made it not so easy was the back pain that started at the end of loop #2, and ended with me in tears with 1.5 miles left in the ride. Once I got off of the bike, the pain immediately went away. Today I sit here fine, and last night you would not have know that I had done any activity this weekend. Fitness is an amazing thing. Back pain, however, is not.


My friend and fellow Wellander Carol popped into my head every time I wanted to turn around and go back to my car early due to back pain or annoyance with the wind.

"Why let the only reason that I am not doing my workout be that I don't want to finish this?"

No words ever spoken to me resonate so often or with such importance. That quite honestly single-handedly got me through the back pain and annoying wind bouts to my car in 60 miles.

Thank you Carol! Even though you were not on the ride with me... you were with me mentally and gave me the tools that I needed to get me to the finish.



The promising thing as far as the back pain goes is is that every ride the pain starts to show later and later, so I think that my back is getting better used to it.


After the ride I went home and started making dinner for Monther's Day with Mike's parents who came over.

I had so much fun this weekend with family, Mike, and training. It is times like these when I feel a good balance in life. It warms my heart and makes me feel happy.


<3 Have a wonderful week!