5 hours, 10 lanes and 1 corkscrew

Finally - Spring/Summer is HERE! No more snow, ice and biting winds. We have finally been blessed with warm days, gentle breezes, sunshine and some spring showers. I have never been so thankful for spring/summer as I am this year. 100+ inches of snow and over 180 days without hitting the 70 degree mark...that's enough to drive anyone crazy!

I am officially 'OFF THE TRAINER'. I have changed my bike tires and am riding outside now, rain or shine. I'm looking at getting a new saddle, cleaning up my handlebar tape, washing the bike and getting the Diva looking fabulous for her summer in the sun. (My Diva is my bike, in case you were wondering :) )

5 Hours

Since Saturday I have spent a total of 5 hours on my bike and rode over 82 miles. Saturday was my first official group ride of the season. I headed out with the FF group and planned on riding the 35 mile route option. I had a few folks trying to talk me into 50 miles, but knew I wasn't in for 50 quite yet. (Even if they were 50 flat miles). Chuck, Peter, Pete and I split off for the 35 mile hilly route about 10 miles into the ride. The morning started out cool but warmed up quite quickly. The hills were punishing and I had forgotten how much different riding on the road was from the trainer. The final 30 minutes of the ride included a visit to the Ironman course. Last time I rode that section of the course was past cheering spectators. This time around was not quite as lively, especially as I watched the guys pedal up the hills easily (or that's how they made it look anyways).

On Sunday, Peter and I went out for a training ride. It was a gorgeous 70 degree day where the appropriate attire was shorts and short-sleeve jersey. No toe covers, gloves tights or jackets required! Overall, the ride was really nice. I did have 30 minutes of hard tempo riding in the middle of the ride. After my Saturday butt-kicking on the bike, my legs weren't real happy with me. It felt great just to be outside though and as a bonus my biker tan is making a comeback.

Last night, Joe and I rode together for the first time out in Janesville and it was awesome. We had a headwind for the first 35 minutes of the ride which made it a bit challenging to talk and enjoy the ride. Once we headed back in though, we had a nice tail wind and really enjoyed a beautiful summer-like evening. Joe has a really high cadence and pedals like a champ. He looked awesome in his new Pearl Izumi bike shorts although if you ask him, he'll say he looked like a dork. :)

10 Lanes

Speaking of Joe, we spent last Saturday together doing one of our favorite activities - bowling! This time we chose to go to Doubledays, a bowling alley in Cottage Grove. We chose it only because we had a coupon for Buy one game, get one game free. Sounds like a good deal.

As we got closer to the bowling alley, we were out in the middle of nowhere and it didn't seem likely that a bowling alley would exist way out in the country. Sure enough though, it did. And it was tiny....there were only 10 lanes. It was TINY! To make it even more interesting, they turned the regular lights off and the black light on. There was a kid's party and it was cosmic bowling or something like that. We had a lot of trouble hooking our balls as well. The lane seemed pretty oily in general. Ah well...I still bowled my highest game ever - a 189!!!

1 Corkscrew

On Friday night, I got together with my friend Dana just to hang out and spend some girl time together. I had purchased a bottle of wine and after some window shopping, we were ready to open the bottle. I was screwing the cork in and once it was all the way in, the corkscrew fell apart in my hand and there was no hope of getting it back together. We first used a pliers to pull out the cork.

Now what? Dana had no other corkscrew. We had three options: Go out in the rain and buy one, borrow one from the neighbors or skip the wine. There is NO WAY that option 3 was happening and we were feeling lazy, so we started with the neighbors :) Fortunately one of Dana's neighbors had a corkscrew and we were all set!

Well, it's getting late and I think I've done a good job of summing up the last 7 days. G'night!