Broken pedals, a dead squirrel, and finally a good brick!

Have you ever broken your clipless pedals? Well, I did. It was a gradual process, I suppose. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that sometimes I would easily unclip of one side of my R pedal. At home, I discovered that the pedal was broken on that side. We are talking broken metal. So I just put red nail polish on that side, and figured I could clip on the other. That worked until last night. 90 min into my trainer ride, I could no longer clip in. I took the bike to the shop where they were amazed that the pedal got broken, and replaced my pedals with a different type of clip system (still recessed type) free of charge. Love my bike shop! Phew!

This morning bright and early I headed out for my 65 mile ride + 4 mile run. It was still dark when I left the house, and the darkness did not help get me excited about the ride. The little birds and dead mice on the side of the bike path did not get me excited either. As I kept biking along, the sun came out, endorphins started flowing, and I was feeling good. And then I heard a scream behind me, turned my head, and saw a dead squirrel, a terrified woman, along with blood on my bike. Yes, I killed the squirrel. I knew this would happen one day. These guys are not v smart and I often have to brake hard to avoid them. Not this time. I mumbled an "I am sorry" and went on my way. Should I have stopped? I don't know, everything happened so fast! For the next 10 miles all I could think about was the dead squirrel! Until I said enough is enough and I pulled out my ipod.

I believe that the squirrel incident made me bike faster. Don't get me wrong, I was still slow, but I was fast for my standards. Chris met me for the last 25 miles. He showed up in cotton pants and shirt, running shoes, and no water. We had a ball, though. Watching him ride up the hills makes me want to have minus body fat like he does. I would surge in front on him on the downhills, and then he'd ride by me on the uphills.

Check out the difference in biking attire. Funny, ha? At least he has a helmet!



My plan for the run was to stay at race pace. That did not happen. I did not look at my Garmin and ended up running the first .5 mile at 10k pace (feeling great), and then settling into lower than planned marathon pace. That felt comfortable, except that I got lightheaded (too little food, I know) toward the end. Still, it was one of the best runs off the bike. I might have turned a corner!

And did I mention how much I love my bikerides? A lot. I am already sad I will have to give them up soon so that I could focus on marathon training...