Trail of Tears: Mountain biking and running

This past weekend was set to be another busy one for us, as all weekends tend to be for us.  It was a weekend that would help me progress my skills on the mountain bike, lose weight and work on getting fit.  However, we set our goals and priorities for the weekend and we were determined to get not only what we HAD to do done, but also the stuff that we wanted to do!   We didn't exactly have success...but the control was out of our hands!!!

This past weekend was a grocery shopping weekend. (We only grocery shop every two weeks....it saves SOO much time and surprisingly a fair amount of money.)   We knew that this was a non-negotiable task so we headed out early on Saturday to get this out of the way (and to beat the crowds in the stores).

Our plan was to shop in the morning and hit the trail of tears in the afternoon.  Our plan worked perfectly and by about 2:30 PM we were on the trail. (We got there later than we wanted, we got sidetracked by playing with a new purchase that we had stopped to get in the morning!)  I was honestly dreading the trail from the get-go.  I really do hate this trail....and no, the word hate is NOT too strong, it's honestly not strong enough!  Jason was not feeling the greatest but was determined to push through his headache to ride the trail. So off we went!


 I had been periodically asking Jason about his headache and he had made the remark that it was doing better than he expected.  But, at the three mile mark he announced that he just couldn't do it, that his head was hurting so bad that he was making stupid errors while riding (which can quickly cause an accident). I was worried about him for sure, but plumb tickled to turn around and head back to the car!  You see, I had started out strong!  But by the three mile marker I had totally ran out of gas!  Absolutely and completely out of energy!   I was done!

The Trail of Tears won again!!!!!!

We arrived home and set about showering ready to commence with relaxing for the evening.  Jason remarked that he felt feverish, but just assumed it was from the hot bike ride, cool temp car ride home followed by a hot shower.  Everything was ok and we talked about and were looking forward to our plans to ride again on Sunday.

Sunday rolled around and Jason woke up feeling awful!  He was hopeful that he would feel better as the day progressed.  However, I flat out said, "No ride today."    I sat back on the couch with a smile, because I was off the hook.....I had a VALID reason to not ride my bike!  However, I knew that his being sick was not valid for ME...especially since I have been thinking more about running again.    It didn't take me long to get my butt off the couch and get moving.

I went for a run instead!  No, I didn't burn as many calories as a bike ride would have netted me.  But it felt good to get out there, get sweaty and do something good for my body!   I was worried as I set out, because the last time I ran was at the end of May and it was.....well....really difficult, as in I couldn't even go more than 3 minutes without having to stop to walk!   It was actually pretty decent.  I ran 3/4 of a mile before I stopped to walk for a bit!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing.......and watching over my poor sick man.

He called off of work sick on Monday.  I knew that I would be absolutely worthless if I went to work due to one aspect of his illness. (He briefly passed out on Sunday....a couple factors contributed to it...and he is fine now....but I am still watching him like a hawk!) I knew that I would be worried that he was laying on the floor unconscious while I was working, and that I would be a wreck if I left him alone!  So I stayed home with him.  I deemed him ok for a few minutes while I went out for a quick run that day too!  I ran even an even longer time before I stopped to walk on this second day of running!

I was super proud of myself for not just sitting on the couch in peace those two days!  I was tempted....but the feeling of pride is amazing!    I am also pleased to see that my almost two months of misery on the trials riding has made a difference in my body, at least in terms of running (and I’m sure other places too)!

So now I am back to work and counting down to the weekend again!   I am pushing forward and ready to get this lose this weight and be fit once and for all!!