Motivated to Succeed

9:30 AM - My mom's birthday is today! I went out for a ride in the early morning before everyone woke up, and after my shower I am baking her two cakes and then I think I am going to take the whole family out for lunch/dinner.  I am excited. It's not every day your mom turns "29" :-D. My mom is truly the most amazing woman in the world. Figured that it was rainy today. First ride in the rain with my bike. It was actually kind of fun! I love the rain. Temp in the mid 60s. Wet. Felt completely relaxed during the whole ride!

Total Time: 1:14:00 Total Mileage: 21.0 miles Average Speed: 17 mph

9:30 AM - Overcast to partly sunny and temperatures in the mid to high 60s. A little stuffy and humid out. Nevertheless, decided to get a ride in. Was a great decision. Ended up doing the longest ride of the year! And arguably the longest in more than 3 years. Definitely the fastest that I've done a long ride. First 29.0 I did by myself to Saratoga via Charlton and Ballston Spa in a blistering 1:30:15!!!. Highlight of this portion: speeding going 33mph in a 30mph zone PAST A COP with a radar gun. I'm surprised he didn't choke on his donought. Muahaha. Then met up with my mom, my sister Su and brother Harry and we all went riding. Saw my dad on a bike today for the first time in 22 years. He used to ride all the time, but I don't recall ever seeing him. He seemed to enjoy it :). I hope we can all go on family rides soon. Oh, Jonny also biked to work and back, so all six of us rode bikes today. Pretty sweet! Mom and Su did a great job and rode at their own pace. Harry was awesome and kept with me. We had a good chat and really enjoyed ourselves. So awesome to be able to bike with family! Can't wait for the next ride. Now time for a ton of food!!!

Total Time: 3:18:00 Total Distance: 51.5 miles Average Speed: 15.6 mph

Note; Someone saw that on my Facebook.com account I made a group "Training for a 100 mile Century". He sent a link and suggested I consider a local ultra bike race in September: http://www.adkultracycling.com/adk540/index.htm   I don't know if I should consider it or what..

5:45 PM - Long day at work. Was happy to finally get home. My mom went out and bought us all red tshirts and wanted "Team Lightning" to go for another ride, so of course I could not object. I went easy and we had a blast. It was a lot of fun. Sunny and temps around 78 or so. What a fun time on the backroads of Galway!

Total Time: 54:36 Total Mileage: 11.5 miles Average Speed:  12.7 mph

No riding today. The worst day I've ever had since the day my grandpa died when I was nine. Our St. Bernard Geri is about 9 and a half and she hasn't been doing well for the last few months. Our vet said she probably would have a good summer, an okay fall, and a hard winter... We thought it was some kind of bone cancer. I guess the cancer progressed faster than expected. She has been breathing weird for the last week or two and then between the time I left for work this morning and the time I came home, her head had swollen up and her eyes swelled shut and she could hardly breathe. We had Cliff our vet come over and within thirty minutes of me getting home I had to witness the hardest thing I've seen in my life. It ranks up there with when I had to watch my mom's dad during his hospice treatment. I've never seen my family cry so much. It was gut renching to have to help carry Geri out to the backho and then watch our neighbor help bring her down to the pet cemetery. Geri wasn't just a dog. She was part of the family. It ripped my heart out to see my mom and dad break down in tears, and when I gave my mom a hug and told her it was okay, she nearly collapsed in my arms. It just isn't fair. Life is so great that I think sometimes we take it for granted just how short it is. It puts things into perspective when you lose someone or something you love. Geri will always be part of the family; it's just going to take a while for me to come to terms with this. Oh how things change in a matter of hours. :'( Tomorrow is going to be the suckiest and hardest day of work.. I don't want to go anywhere. Just want to be able to see our puppy :-. *sigh.

"Geri" Geraldine the Great of Galway - 9.5 years (b. 1999 d. 2008)

5:00 PM - Today was a hard day at work and then coming home and only seeing Libi and not Geri :(. Sigh. It's going to take a while for the pain to go away I think. Total was hot and humid. Temp about 85 when I hopped on the bike and sunny. I did the back roads again. Overall a good ride, except I think my back rim is bent and that is actually the reason behind the squeaking noise all along. I bet warranty doesn't cover it though since I just now figured this out. It's been rubbing on the break pad all along. Gr. Felt good though. Two more days of work this week.

Total Time: 1:35:06 Total Distance: 27.4 mi Average Speed: 17.3 mph

5:00 PM - Very hot and muggy. Temperature around 90. Went for an easy 10 miler, but stopped because something is out of whack with the wheel. It's been squeaking since I got it. From some research it sounds like the rim is "out of true". So I'm going to have to drop it off at a bike shop and see what they can do with it. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long. I really don't want to go a week or two without my bike!