Mountain Biking

Setting an alarm and needing to wake up is a surefire way to make sure that I don't sleep well.  Every time I have to get up before 6:00 I just can't sleep well.  I toss and turn and wake up every hour or two.  And if the time is 3:30 I usually start waking up every half hour.  For the past 7 years every time I have set an alarm, I've never actually used it.  So needless to say, last night wasn't the best night sleep.  I got up at 5:30, 15 minutes before my alarm was to go off and ate my breakfast I prepared the night before of sweet potato, russet potato, and sausage scramble. I made sure to eat something higher in carbs since we were going to be biking for a while. The kids were very compliant getting up early and being rushed out the door and dropped off at the sitter's house.  I'm still surprised we found someone willing to take the kids from 6:30am-12:00, but I am grateful that Matt and I were able to get out and go biking. 

We went on a new trail and it was a pretty fun trail.  Much more technical than what I am used to, so I had a harder time steering and getting over all the rocks.  I had to walk a lot more on this trial than on others I had done.  This one was kind of like a roller coaster.  It went up and down and up and down and up and down.  I'm not very good at biking that way.  You shift a lot more with your gears and the technique you use is different.  I've only gone on trails that go up and up and up.  Matt said to pedal while you are going downhill to get enough speed to go up the steep uphill parts.  The problem is I was so busy trying to keep my balance and steer through all the rocks and windy trial that I literally couldn't pedal at the same time.  So I just ended up walking a lot.  But I did learn how to go down some fairly technical rock outcroppings. 

That part is one of the easy parts.  The trail totally kicked my butt.  We didn't get to the end of the trail which I was kind of disappointed by, but even when we turned around, it was so hard for me to get back.  I didn't realize how tired I was getting going out.  On the way back I kept thinking "come on body!  There is plenty of energy in my fat cells, just use some of that!"  My body it seems has other plans.  Unfortunately my conscious brain does not have override procedures on the autonomic nervous system. 


This picture was taken going out, so I was still feeling pretty good

Back in the car I ate the Larabar I packed as an after workout snack.  It wasn't the most ideal thing but it was the easy thing.  Ideally you are supposed to have some protein some carbs but I didn't feel like packing some eggs or meat and vegetables.  Matt ate fruit which I am really trying to avoid eating for snack as I'm trying to slay my sugar dragon.  Since my Larabar was nothing but dates and cashews, not sure if that helped but the point is, I needed something for after my ride.  My body has definitely not entirely switched over to burning fat as a fuel source because I was totally wiped out after the ride.  It was a struggle to stay awake in the car.  Now before you go on a rant about how I probably needed to eat more carbs remember these things: 1.  I hardly slept the night before. 2. This is my first ride I've done since getting sick so that makes it my first mountain bike ride in 5 weeks. 3. We were about 1,000 feet higher in elevation than where I live and 4. It was the hardest and longest bike ride I've been on.

All those factors put together just made me crash afterwards.  I was not pleasant from 1:00-3:00.  Pretty much I gave Lily the Ipad and fell asleep with Chloe.  Good mom I know, but I was useless anyway and super grouchy when we got home.  The afternoon, after I had recovered a bit, was much more productive.  I groomed my dog (I should have taken a picture.  Maybe I'll get one for tomorrow), did all the laundry, cleaned the kitchen floors which had gotten sticky from the kids eating plums and dripping juice everywhere, practiced my flute, fed the family dinner, and now I'm about ready to go crash into bed. 

Day 8.  A bit more of a struggle.  I was very tempted by the M&Ms that Lily was eating.  I also saw the diet pepsi in the garage when we pulled in and I wanted one so bad.  But only water for me.  I probably should get some bubbly water, that will probably help with the soda cravings.  I did get a headache today but I'm not sure if that was due to food or due to my bike ride.  Not hungry in between meals.  I've been making my portions smaller and smaller for the past few days since I was so full that one day I couldn't hardly eat dinner.  I think I have found a happier portion size... or maybe I was just hungrier today due to my bike ride.  Either way, I didn't get hungry until lunch time and until dinner time at 5pm.  No snacking in-between, although I wanted to just for emotional purposes in the afternoon when I was feeling really tired.  Tomorrow is day 9 and then the dreaded day 10 and 11.  I'm preparing myself so I don't quit now.  I've come too far now.