Six easy miles. Beautiful last day of winter! Ran with MR, so he set the pace. 9:50-9:00 was our range. I was disapointed that my knee started popping around mile 3.5. It did it a couple of times and I stopped to stretch out my quad and I tightened my knee band. Still popped a could of times more on the way home, but not as bad.
Tired of knee problems. Want to run free.
After a quick break at home and a wardrobe change, we headed out for our 4 county bike ride. I've been wanting to do it for a while now, and today was the perfect day!! Beautiful ride out in the country among the farms and fields. We went from Cumberland, to Robeson, to Hoke, back to Robeson, then through Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson, and finally back to Cumberland County. It was 40 miles in all..just around 3 hours. We weren't breaking any speed records, just enjoying the ride.
My legs were tired and sore though. Felt like mile 20 in the marathon when we still had 5 miles till home. And for some strange reason, we were in some kind of twilight zone vortex where no matter which direction we were riding, the wind was blowing in our faces. It was always blowing head on...and we rode in a circle!!
It was a productive treasure hunt day, however. MR was the treasure hunter extrodinaire. The first find was a broken statue in the field. He was able to rescue the part that had the head with a basket on top of it. Fit in his backpack perfectly. That would have been treasure enough, but fate had more in store for us on this trip.
I was headed up the overpass and really focused on pedaling strong into the wind as I went uphill, so I never heard him yell out, "What the CRAP is that?" I didn't see that he had stopped and turned around to pick up another treasure. All I knew was that when I had finally reached the bottom of the overpass, I turned around to see where he was, and he was just cresting the top of the hill. It made me mad because I had to pull over and stop and wait for him. I was feeling really grouchy about all of it, and was ready to make some comment about "thanks for making me lose my momentum" when he rode up on his bike, and as he passed me, I saw that there were 2 long barbie legs with white stiletto heels poking up out of the back of his bag. It made me laugh and I just couldn't be grouchy looking at those silly long legs poking out the top of his bag. He'd found a Spanish Dancing Barbie..complete with a wire hoop skirt and fan. It was certainly a perfect treasure and I'm glad he got it. He rode the rest of the time with those barbie legs sticking out the top of his bag.
We stopped for a snack at McDonalds at mile 24. Nice break. Want to get attention?? Wear biking shorts to McDonalds. It's like wearing a huge red blinking light that says "Stare at my legs!"
We saw a few other treasures on the way home that wouldn't fit in the backpack. There was a stuffed my little pony, a bratz doll head that you can style the hair on, and 1/2 a lazy-boy recliner. (It is important to note that he wanted to make sure I got the mattress in the background).
My legs were sore the rest of the day, but it was all worth it. I'm not sure I'll be going on rides that long again for a while, but I'm glad I had a chance to do it when it was so beautiful outside. | 