Weekend Wrap Up: Riding Dirty Edition

On Friday, possibly against my better judgement, I registered for the Tri Fall Creek Falls Triathlon.  This will be my first Olympic distance tri.  It's double the distance of the sprint tri I just did last weekend.  I put my estimated finish time as 3:15:00.  Oy.  So, needless to say, I spent the entire weekend working out.

On Saturday morning, I coached my P2T group & then picked up Lana for open water swim practice.  We went ahead & bought a season pass to the Anderson Road Beach, so we're totes legit now.  We swam for about 45 minutes.  Oh!  And I got bit by a turtlefishshark.

I lived.

Post lake swim, we re-fueled at Mitchell Deli.  Oh, everything breakfast bagel & cheese grits, it's been too long.

After breakfast, Lana & I went to Hey Rooster General Store, where I picked up this neat artisan sriracha.  I'm pretty excited about it.

John is always interested in staying in & making steak, so I agreed with the caveat that we incorporate my new sriracha.  There's a recipe in the new issue of Everyday Food for sriracha butter.  Ding, ding, ding!  We didn't have the anchovy fillets, but this butter was delicious!

I made chipotle scalloped potatoes to go with our steaks.  The pat of sriracha butter on the steak was soooo good!  This meal was pretty ridiculous.  And by ridiculous, I mean awesome.  (Sorry herbivore readers.)

I tried on clip-in bike shoes this weekend & flirted with the idea of transitioning over, but then my friend Julie (above) said I need to get comfortable riding on the road before I clip-in.  I almost exclusively ride on greenways, so I figured she had a point.  Julie offered to take me out on the roads & help me get acclimated.  I met her at Grassland Middle School on Hillsboro & we rode for about 2 hours.  I'd tell you where we went, but I don't know where I was.

We rode about 15 miles.  We were on roads the whole way.  There weren't a lot of cars, but there were cars.  Unless we were being passed by a car, Julie rode beside me & basically taught me how to ride a bike.  She taught me where on the road to ride, how to avoid gravel & potholes & what to do when a car comes.  She also taught me how to descend.  The picture above is of "Cardiac Hill".  Julie went down it first, made sure it was clear, then called for me to go down it.  It was a little terrifying, but I did it.

Coming back, we were both a little worried I wouldn't be able to climb back up Cardiac Hill.  But I totally did it!  And I did it while being passed by 2 cars.  Go, me!  Julie took this picture of me at the top of Cardiac Hill, post climb.

I feel soooo much better about riding on roads now.  Julie thinks I'm ready for the Trace, so maybe I'll ride that a time or two & then transition to clipping in - ?  Y'all, shit is GETTING REAL.