I felt like that girl from the Advil commercial this morning, the one who runs in the rain and says “You don’t know me, you don’t know Advil” – except I was on a bike and hadn’t taken any Advil. 

I was itching to get going this morning and just do something.  I wasn’t feeling like the gym, didn’t feel like yoga after yesterday’s sweat session, and running didn’t excite me (then again, it never does).  And then I realized I hadn’t been on a real bike ride yet this spring!  Decision made, I got dressed after breakfast and hopped on my bike to explore a new trail.

I knew it was supposed to rain, but it wasn’t calling for rain until the afternoon, so I figured I had loads of time.  Not so much.

The first half of the route it was just overcast and no rain.  I kept seeing signs along the bike path for the “Rideau Falls” – something I had never seen, or known about, in the 6 years I’ve been in Ottawa.  I wanted to check it out, so even though I started to see some greyer skies rolling in, I kept biking farther away from my house.

The route was all along the Rideau River and I ended up seeing parts of Ottawa I’d never seen before, including lots of cool old condo buildings and interesting looking office buildings.  The route ended at the falls, right next to the French Embassy.  I biked around there for a bit just to see what was there, and then turned around to head back.

And at the same time, it began to rain.

Light showers, no big deal.  “This feels kind of nice,” I’m thinking to myself, “a little rain won’t hurt.”

Except it didn’t stay a little rain, it quickly became big rain in the form of downpours.  Again, I told myself this is no big deal… but my mind started getting the best of me…

“You don’t have your cell phone on you if something happens”

“You don’t know where you are if you’re off the path”

“There’s nobody around and you’re in the forest”

“The path is extra slippery and your brakes aren’t as quick to respond”

“That girl was murdered on a bike trail when she took cover from the rain” (An awful Ottawa story)

Fear does amazing things to your body.  Today, it made me bike pretty fast!  Blinded by rain drops, I decided to think about what was great about the bike ride…

“You’re biking in the pouring rain – that’s so hardcore” (followed by me laughing out loud at this thought)

“You’re starting off Saturday with a great work out”

“Biking is way more fun than running”

“You’ve finally figured out where this mystery path leads to”

Once I got home, I felt awesome.  I was soaking wet, covered in bugs and tree dirt and had rain drops rolling off my legs.  I biked 25km and burned off 550 cals, not too shabby in an hour and a half.  I couldn’t help but think that what I did was pretty stupid though.  Next time, I’m bringing at least my phone with me and a snack (just as important!) and some ID.  

Bike fuel

Good thing I had a delish breakfast to fuel me for my ride!

I used my new breakfast set this morning too – I was saving it all week for Saturday.  I’m such a nerd.

This was a 1/3c. serving of oat bran because I knew I’d be having fruit with it too.  I did use 1 c. of water though to make it a bit more voluminous and added half a nan + cranberry t-mix + almond butter.  I never would have thought there’s such a thing as too much almond butter, but there is, and it was in this bowl.  I did still eat it all though.

My fruit plate was pineapple + thawed out frozen berry blend.  It was good, but felt like too much fruit.

I made a whole pot of Tetley raspberry white tea too.

Time for lunch, laundry, a bit of baking and lots of relaxing with a book!

Happy Saturday!!  

Adi

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Bike, Breakfast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.