So Saturday came with the threat of storms, so I sighed and got on the trainer. I had a 3:25 Z1/Z2 ride and I was not excited about being indoors for it. But I put some Arrested Development DVDs in and started pedaling. I was about 1 episode in, that I just said "Fuck it!" and I got off the trainer grabbed my helmet and a powerbar and decided to risk it. I figured, if it started to really storm I could had three options:
1)Call a cab and hope that they sent one with room for the bike
2)Call my boyfriend and hope he could find me
3)Hang out in the rain until it cleared up a bit and hope I didn't get struck by lightening.
In my mind, all of those options were better than sitting in my guest room watching TV. And beside I figured I could use a little fresh air and alone time. Little did I know....
I was about 20 minutes into my ride thinking, this is fantastic, out here alone, pushing myself when I want, deciding my own pace and enjoying myself. I was about to pull up to a red light when all of a sudden someone in a blue Italia jersey flew passed me and said "Come on little momma, keep pedaling!" At that point I was confused, because the light was red and I didn't want to get hit by a car, but off this character went. So the light turned green and this "little momma" got back to pedaling. It was then that I realized that Italia had slowed his pace a bit and kept looking over his shoulder. Finally he caught my eye and waved me up to him.
So there I went up to this stranger to see what he wanted. (Did my parents not teach me anything!) And next thing I know we are riding buddies. Now this would have been fine, except it was more like the worst game of cat and mouse. All I did for the next 3 hours is chase this guy. We did about 6 killer climbs and every time I fell behind, I heard "Come on little momma, pedal!!!" and so I did! And that is how it went for the remainder of my relaxing ride with myself!
It turned out he was from the tri club from Hoboken and quite an interesting person to ride with. I felt trashed when I got back but I knew it was a good workout. It was just such a strange situation. What is the etiquette with that anyway? Can you just drop back from the person and then they get the hint? Or do you have to explicitly say, "I don't want to ride with you." Not sure what the best practices are for deferring a bike partner! But I can say I am glad that I didn't.
The remainder of the weekend was filled with eating and relaxing, we finished off Saturday with the US/England soccer match. (Snooze fest!) And then on Sunday we headed into the city for the New York BBQ Festival and sampled some phenomenal bbq, from pulled pork, to ribs and brisket. It was delicious. Then we headed home to hold the couch down for the rest of the night.
Today is the usual spin, swim, spin, and I must say I was quite proud of my full class this morning and a good friend who came to class for the first time ever today!
Other than that it is just another Monday here in my world.
The only way I've gotten rid of someone like that on a ride is to say you are following a training script from your coach and will be turning around soon. A white lie but it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteThen again, it sounds like you got a good workout in so maybe it was worth it? I don't know about the "Little Mama" nickname though.
Thanks for the tip, I will have to try it next time.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, totally bizarre with the nickname!