Revenge of the Trees

So, I'm on a self-imposed moratorium from running. No problem, that just means more time for biking. S didn't "have" to golf this morning, so we loaded up the mt bikes and took them over to the Lick Creek trailhead. I wish I had taken a camera, but since I didn't I guess I'll have to go back again.

A buddy at work who is like the zenmaster of mountain biking said that the entrance was blocked by a huge fallen tree and you had to climb around on some rocks to get back to the trail. A greater person probably would have ridden over those rocks, but I chose to hoof it.

The one thing I noticed about the trail today was that there are like twice as many tree roots busting up the surface as last year. We have had lots and lots of rain, so the soil is slowly eroding away. The north and far south trails, not so much, but the middle trail was like riding over corrugated metal roofing in spots. It was as if the trees were angry and wanted to kill you.

Funny part of the ride, to get from the north to the south parts you have to come out on the paved bike trail and ride for about a quarter mile to the next trailhead. It was so hot and muggy, the bugs were just terrible in there and would eat you alive if you stopped. Plus the poison ivy is healthy. We paused to get a breather and a bunch of boys, junior high age, came tooling down the paved trail on bmx bikes. I figured they'd head into the woods but they didn't. I heard one of them say something like "oooh, they're going into the woods..." like something sexy was going to happen. When they cruised by I said something stupid like "hey guys" and they freaked out and started pedaling like crazy. One was harping at the other saying "she HEARD you man, I KNOW she HEARD what you said!!!!"

Winding Down

Is anyone else glad that the season is coming to an end? The constant grind of scheduling life around workouts and letting everything else slide is easing somewhat and I have to say it's a relief. I'm not even slightly thinking about what next year may hold. I had a race on the calendar for today, but an IT band injury changed all of that and here I am blogging with a cat sleeping blissfully on my lap, drinking coffee and planning my day, while my running buddies are probably crossing the bridge into Iowa at the Quad Cities half Marathon. It doesn't bother me at all. All I'm feeling is relief.

Ike Strikes

Hurricane Ike is destroying Texas. Here in the midwest, we're far enough away so as to be unaffected by such things, although we do get our share of tornadoes and even a respectable earthquake this year.
But 2008 is different. We're 17 inches over the normal rainfall for the year. Think about it. That's like a foot and a half of water.
It started raining last night. Hard driving rain that pounded the roof of my house and made our old dog pace the floor. The cats huddled next to me for security. When my four-footed friends are nervous, I know the weather is going to be bad.
The worst of it hit this morning around 5 a.m. Which meant the biathlon that I intended to run might be cancelled. But it wasn't, instead the bike leg was cancelled and we ran a 5k at 9 am in pouring rain and strong winds. It sucked big time. I don't like short races to begin with since my strength is long slow distance (and I mean slow, really), but this was HARD. I had faint but realistic hopes of PRing today, but running through 3-4 inches of cold water, against the wind, just made conditions tough.
Lounged around on the couch all afternoon with a headache and feeling kind of feverish. Probably picked up a virus somewhere. My mom has been under the weather this week. It's a fitting end to a nasty day.
S and I have hardly been able to get out the mountain bikes at all this year with so much rain. And I have beautiful new tires that need to be broken in.
Just noticed that one of the maple trees in the front yard is sporting brilliant red leaves. Fall's definitely on its way.