Girl Power! (And Loop #9 of the Season)

Joy here...Yesterday I did a loop of the park in about 3 hours and 30 minutes door-to-door as I did my best to make sure that I didn't fall too far behind our visiting Ironman friend, but because we had been up so very late on Tuesday night, that ride on Wednesday didn't happen until the afternoon, which meant that none of the girls from my ever-supportive cycling "sisterhood" were free.

No problem.  I made up for it today.

In less than 24 hours I completed TWO loops of that park (approximately 65kms each, door-to-door, which means that I've done approx. 130kms of hard riding in less than two days)!

The early morning sun peaking through the trees.

I headed out the door at 7am with the sun already up fairly high in the sky, but the air wasn't yet too  hot.  Since The Man rode yesterday, I was on my own to meet one of my friends, and so I rode along the road at my own pace, neither waiting for anyone, nor trying to catch up to anyone.  And I've learned that I don't mind riding alone.  I used to be afraid that any time I was on my own, I was running the risk of falling over and lying there - unseen and unknown - until some bystander would happen to stop by and save the day, but I've now got about 2 summers of bike riding under my belt, and I no longer fear riding all alone, and, in fact, I enjoy the feeling of setting my own pace and getting into my own rhythm.

You can see a cyclist in the distance if you look closely!

But more than that, I enjoy meeting up with a friend on a July morning to just get out there and accomplish something.  I find that I never feel as good as I do on the days when I'm up bright and early and doing something physical first thing.  Then...no matter what else I get up to during the day, I end up feeling like I've accomplished something and the rest of the day is like "gravy" or Icing on the proverbial cake of life.

And so I thank my friend for getting my lazy butt out of bed this morning to head out for a ride through the park when I was thinking..."just sleep in...just sleep in...just sleep in."  And I thank Nomi and Lulu for kicking my butt with running (which I really need to get back into as much as I've been getting into the cycling).  Because all my friends have shown me that there's really not a whole lot that can go wrong in the world when you've got good girlfriends to kick your butt and keep you accountable!  Girl Power!

The view that makes getting up at 5am all worthwhile.

Over and out,

Joy