A new hobby.

One Sunday, May 23rd, to be exact, a phenomenon happened. I was antsy as HELL because at this point I was still trying to recover from my achilles injury so no walking or running for me. Boo. At this point I decided, "well, I want to get a bike today so I can workout that way!" Whaaaaat? Me, the runner, biking? My trainer Justin just fell over dead when I mentioned this to him. He's only been trying to get me to bike for, oh, forever. No one ever thought that I would trade in my running shoes for this biking nonesense.

I coerced Tim into going with me (not really hard as he had been wanting a bike too) and I can see this thought process going on in his head, like, "is she really serious? No way...." so he says, a little skeptically, "well, we can at least go get a bike rack for the car." Ok! So we pack up the dog and head to the rack store.

We find the rack he wanted and, score! They can install it right then. Sweet! And even better, we're getting the floor model so we don't have to do ANYTHING ourselves...just put the bikes on (that we don't have yet...) and go.

A picture of the rack in the store.

It was about a 45 minute-an hour install and we were right across the street from whole foods. So I ran to pick up a few things while Bella and Tim waited outside. Oh, and Bella decided to poop at a major cross street. This is only funny because at her annual vet appointment a few weeks later, the vet asks, "Were you guys at the corner of X and X a few weeks ago? I saw a couple that looked like you with a dog that looked like Bella picking up her poop and I thought her poop was looking really good if it was Bella!" Um, yep, that was us. With the dog that poos A MILLION times a day, regardless of the fact that it is much "better looking" poop than historically.

Anyway, after getting the rack we dropped off the groceries and headed to the bike store. I was convinced to get a specialized mountain bike because with a mountain bike, I can always switch out the tires to road tires. Plus, it's been YEARS since I've ridden (think Rainbow brite bike) so I was pretty sure I didn't want to start off on a road bike. Tim also decided to get a mountain bike as he has been wanting to ride in the mountain trails. Anyway, my bike? AWESOME. And of course all of the gear to go with them... bike shorts, helmets, computers to show how far a ride is, etc.

Putting the bikes on the new rack.

And another shot of strapping those babies in.

All in and ready to go ride!!!

Of course, when we got home, the PRINCESS BELLA was going insane so naturally she had to run first. Naturally. But, after that? First ride! Whoo! Um, let me just say. HOLY CRAP, what an awesome workout!!!! I have been missing out! There were lots of hills so that made it even tougher. But WOW at the end, I felt like I'd run a marathon and my quads were jelly. It was INCREDIBLE. And don't make fun of the running gear. It is AWESOME because it makes those silly bike seats not hurt my ass.

The princess and I in front of the bikes.

SO much fun. I'm so glad to have another great option for cardio if I ever do have my achilles injury act up again. And not to mention, riding is just so much fun, I think I'll do it anyway, regardless! Oooop, there go all of my running boys hitting the ground dead again from me, the runner, making that crazy statement... Justin and Tim... MAYBE, just MAYBE you were on to something with this whole riding thing. Maybe. We'll see.