Life of Pie

After a promising start to the bike training yesterday with a ride into and out of the city, a total of about 20 miles with some of my side-tracks, my fit-quest went to the birds... the Antique Pie-Birds, that is. It was another positively gorgeous day when I got home around 3:30 (teacher wanted to start the weekend early.... yippee!).  While I was riding home, I thought I might eat a quick salad, exchange the road bike for a mountain bike, and work on discovering some of the dirt tracks I've not bothered to look for in the year+ I've been in Northern Virginia.  I was conflicted however, when confronted with the hopeful eyes of my beloved Ruffian.   Ruffian, who, as a puppy and young dog spent many hours tied to a tree or next to my car at bike races waiting for me to cross the finish line.

Sometimes "Take out the Trash" is the most exciting phrase
Ruffian hears all day.

Part of what eventually turned me away from competitive cycling in the first place is the self-centeredness one must generally have to be willing put so much blood, sweat, and tears into the perfection of his or her body and what is arguably an ultimately meaningless pursuit of the ego.  Between weighing every gram of food, spending 2 hours a day in an ice bath, making sure you get exactly 8 hours 15 minutes of sleep per night, and the worst... not being able or willing to go on a mountain bike ride with your friends on a gorgeous day because your training plan says that day you must do maximum intensity intervals for 3 minutes on 2 minutes off at exactly a 4 percent grade (which, of course cannot be recreated anywhere except for your living room cyclotrainer)... there is little time for giving of yourself to others.

I tossed my mountain bike plans aside and took Ruffian to the dog park.  I chose to put her joy above my goals, and seeing her happy gave me so much more satisfaction any number of medals or winning rides ever could.  I could have come home from that excursion and dug up the self-discipline to find a way to work in some training, but then Adam was home from work, and I did want to spend some time with my husband.  So we packed up the bus and went in search of... whatever... and whatever turned out to be pie (and some beer and scouting out some trails i hope to get to tomorrow!)