What a Week

The tree down in my backyard

Well, I lived. I made it through a rough patch of ridiculously HOT and HUMID weather and a crazy couple of storms in the last week. Mostly, on my bike. It's been awhile since I posted I know, I've been in a rather whinny mood with the 'terrible' weather I thought I'd be nice and spare all of you with my complaints. But here's a "quick" wrap up. (go ahead settle in, I know, I know I tend to get long winded! But you keep coming back to read what I write, so....)

SATURDAY
Last Saturday night the cuz and I had plans to ride our bikes to go out and see a local burlesque show with one of my friends that also rides bikes. Let me set up the day with the weather report - Hazy and HOT at 94* with 90% humidity with a CAUTION your baby's lungs might swell BAD AIR QUALITY rating for the day. The dogs haven't been outside in a week with the heat like it's been. Blue has even put on some weight since he's become one with the couch this week. back to my story...I was really looking forward to going out on our bikes that night hoping to:

1. Forcing myself to leave the window A/C unit and get out of the house
2. Feeling the self-made breeze on the bike
3. We were planning to be out past midnight so I was looking forward to cooler temps into the night. You know, like 80* (I know I'm sick!)

Lizzie planning to ride her bike over to my house for the first time instead of driving turned out to be quite exciting! It's only 4 miles, but she hadn't really rode the new bike by herself. It was kind of like a little bird poking their head out of the nest to see if MAYBE they COULD fly! I was quite proud! I started to get out my extra lights to put on her bike when she got to my place. But it was so dark I had to turn on the living room light. That's odd I thought to myself, it's only 7pm. I looked out the window trying to figure out in my sweaty fog why it was so dark so early. There was a GIANT BLACK monstrous cloud, and pink lightening! Just then I heard the first crack of thunder. I immediately picked up my phone to call the cuz to say "ABORT! ABORT MISSION! DON'T ATTEMPT TO RIDE IN THIS!!!!"

Being the trooper that she is, Lizzie was thinking she could out ride the demon cloud covering her apartment complex. She later told me she didn't want me to think she was wimping out. Again, I'm so proud! But no, there was NO WAY she or even Lance himself could outrun that storm. Ok Maybe Lance could, but the storm was coming from the northeast, and I live south of Lizzie, so even Lance would have rode smack into that freak of nature storm!
Is that really how big my ass is? When did that happen?

By the time Lizzie made it to my house, over 200,000 homes had lost power in Atlanta. Yep me too. And did I mention it was stifling HOT? The sweat poured on with out the fans and little ac unit to help out. But on the bright side the wind whipped up and it suddenly POUREd rain in sheets like I've never seen. It looked like a waterfall coming down my street it was so heavy and so sudden. Oh, and I watched a 50 foot tree go down in my backyard as I was talking to Matt (the new friend) on the phone. Crazyness. After the bulk of the storm passed almost 45 minutes later, the lightening was still hitting all around and was still pink. Pink Lightening! So we drove on Saturday night to go out. We picked up my friend Matt (different than the boyfriend Matt) and ended up enjoying ourselves at the Atlanta Burlesque show which was a Monty-Python style show. Something different and fun. And it was only $10 per person AND included all you can drink wine & beer. Deal!

Lizzie was a bikin fool! Look how far ahead she is!

SUNDAY
The cuz and I decided Saturday wasn't adventure enough since we missed out on the bikes and we needed a good ride. (Gosh I'm proud of her!) It was her plan to make Sundays the "long, fun ride day". She even wrote it down on her workout schedule, so it's like, set in stone now that we do long, fun rides on Sundays. Rock on. Anyways, I had this whole plan to ride out to Decatur Square along the bike paths (and shaded trees) and then have lunch at some eclectic little cafe then turn around and come back. Oh, I forgot to mention, it was even HOTTER on Sunday! Well it was 94* again, but 95% HUMIDITY- both days were 'record breaking' not something I like to hear in the weather report. To steal a Jill quote who once lived in the desert and remembers "the oven rides, dripping so much sweat and rubber that you could have scraped pieces of me off the pavement to make gravy." yeah, that's exactly how it felt. Lizzie was awesome and rode over to my house on Sunday at 1:30 to depart for our long, fun ride to Decatur. We took our time and enjoyed our slight breeze and the heaviness in our lungs from the thick air. We rode out to Decatur, only about 10 miles away and had lunch at the only open non-Mexican restaurant in the square- along with everyone else. Luckily the food was ok cause the service sucked. But we did get ice in our water bottles from the bar. I rode home with Lizzie on the Raleigh to see the great back road route she came up with between our homesteads. It was pretty rockin with slow traffic and neighborhoody treed streets and nice shoulders. Honestly I don't even remember going to bed that night, I was delirious from the heat.

Dang! I'm fast and cool! Look at that great aero positioning!

MONDAY
The work week sucked. There was just so much to do, no love from the co-workers and my commutes weren't going too well. I kept thinking I was just super worn out from all the miles this month, but I rested so much in the last week. I only rode like 30 miles M-F last week. My legs felt good and fresh, but I just had no omph. I know my nutrition sucks, but its not THAT bad to make me feel so miserable and my cardio just wasn't great. I was losing my 'fun' on the bike and frustrated. And why can't MATT just come home already!?!

TUESDAY
The cuz and I had tickets to Amos Lee at Variety Playhouse. A show I've been looking forward to for a couple months now. Awesome Lizzie rode over to my house in the heat and humidity again while attempting to not sweat her socks off. Actually she wasn't wearing any socks, but you get the point. We went to the show via bikes and tried to ride really, Really slow as to not sweat too much. HA! We crack me up! Sweat we did, but whatever, we are still cool! It was so dang hot! We enjoyed the show, stood up front and stayed til the end. Then Lizzie rode herself home(I finally put those lights on the Raleigh for her). She finally made that plunge out of the nest to fly!

WEDNESDAY
I was so fed up and had so much to juggle at work that (I can't believe I'm admitting this) I did it. I...drove...to work. For no reason! I PAID $9 to park my stupid car all day at the office parking deck. I so felt guilty and crappy all day, AND I was tired from the late night at the show. I was in a foul mood at the office, I felt like everyone knew I drove for no reason and thought something of it. But I will admit the a/c in my car did feel really nice. Turns out, no one else cared if I drove or not. I was expecting to be stoned or get called out, but nothing happened. The guys a the gym didn't even say anything the next day. I guess that confirms that my driving issue is totally an internal obsession I have.

THURSDAY
I am trying to get LEED accredited and have 6 weeks of evening classes to get ready starting this week. They are scheduled til 7 each Thursday. I was looking forward to riding home at this time hoping (as usual) that the temp might drop a few mercury points and be a little less uncomfortable. That morning was HOT! It was 80* at 6:30 in the morning. I was dripping in sweat and my lungs felt heavy by the time I got to the end of my street. And it was dark, I used my headlight it was so dark. But also SO hot, it was unnatural I tell ya. It's still hard for me to not expect it to be cold when it's dark, I guess that is an Alaska kid thing. That afternoon (which was crazy at work) there was a HUGE storm again. Since I'm on the 19th floor I had a very different perspective this time. The wind was whipping, and there was hail and lightening and thunder right outside our windows. We were smack in the middle of it - eye level in fact! It was quite exciting really. A coworker walked in on me just as I jumped and yelped from a crack of lightening that I think might of hit our building as I was watching the storm! I may never live that down.

Nice Helmet! I can't ever get that trunk bag to stay on straight!

Luckily by the time my class was over the temp had dropped to 80* maybe even 79* after the rain storm and it was the most wonderful feeling to my skin! I almost shivered and thought, I almost need long sleeves!!!!! I LOVE IT!!! On my bike it felt like I flew home! My legs powered up the (little, slight) inclines (that I call hills) like never before! I was back baby! And better than ever! My 9 mile route home felt effortless! As I was smiling at myself in awe for my fitness improvements I realized that maybe, just perhaps the temp and humidity had a lot more to do with my 'slump' than I gave it credit for. You think? It felt so good when I got home I took the boys for a little jaunt around the neighborhood to enjoy the newfound coolness in the air.

FRIDAY
The morning was AMAZINGLY cool at 6:45 am it was 71* which surprised me as being cooler outside than in my house. Tank top and shorts felt perfect. I felt strong and fresh on the ride in. The 'hills' were effortless and I wasn't even breathing hard. I am in awe at how the humidity affects my effort and my breathing while riding. The work week is over now (well another hour), I got all my work done or survived it anyways. I caught up on my blog reading - Fatty cracked me up with his DZnuts review! This was especially funny to me since I've been struggling with saddle sores to top it all off this week. Thank your goodness I spared you that story!

There were three birthdays at the office this week so I'm eatting a delicious ORANGE cupcake right now which is a great way to end the week. I have no real plans this weekend except to watch the Olympics with the cuz and to clean my house. Matt (the boyfriend) FINALLY gets home next weekend, so I plan on putting the house back together. But that's really a whole nother (long winded) post!

Happy Friday!

I'll try to jazz this up with some photos later! I really need to work on taking some better pictures! They really suck lately and are far and few between.