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Brrrr....what a ride!

Words can't express how I feel right now. I have a black eye and I am extremely tired. Let me explain...
Last night Karel and I invited Lenore and Alex over (Alex works at the Trek store) for dinner. I prepared one of the easiest dinners ever. Lenore brought the salad and I had a buffet of toppings for french bread pizza. I cooked onions, corn, spicy red beans, mushrooms and veggie meat all separately in a 450-degree oven. I used a can of tomatoes (diced) and added that to about 2 cups marinara sauce. I cut the french bread into 4 slices and toasted them in the oven for about 5 min. I heated the sauce, used shredded cheese and Karel cut up some meat. I put everything out on the table and let everyone make their own pizza. I'm not a fan of serving people or preparing food which people can't pick and choose what they want. This meal was just perfect and super easy!

And for desert I made my croissants (Pillsbury can helped with that) with jelly. I also made chocolate sugar-free, fat-free instant pudding and added some chopped walnuts with that. I think the entire meal took about 45 min to prepare and that was with the desert.
We watched our wedding video and it brought back so many great memories. Karel and I want to do it all over again! Maybe we will renew our vows next year and have another wedding/get together...just A LOT cheaper :)

We went to bed around 10pm and 5:40 came pretty fast. When Karel took Campy out in the morning he told me it was cold out. COLD???? It was just super hot two days ago. Well, it had dropped to 40 degrees and it was our first real cold day here in Jax. After a small bowl of oatmeal, banana slices and raisins it was time to bundle up. I toughed it up and only had my shorts, jersey, an underlayer shirt, arm warmers and gloves on but Karel had a vest and knee warmers.
As we headed to the bike shop (1.2 miles away) I was already cold on my finger tips. It was only 6:45am but I knew it wasn't going to turn hot anytime during the ride. Having already checked the weather, the high of 60 was a big shock for us this morning.
We picked up Cody at the store and by mile 10 my toes were cold. I wasn't having a hard time riding but booties and thicker gloves would have helped. I'm sure all the northerners are laughing now but for us, this was a cold day.
I drafted off of Karel and Cody and we met up with Jeff and Curtis. The guys rode 2 x 2 and I always had two guys to draft behind. I was planning to ride about 40 miles with the guys and then head home but when Karel told me that we would be getting head wind and crosswind all the way home, I made the decision to do the entire ride with the guys.
The wind was super strong and the pace was about 20-22 mph then entire ride. Even in the wind, it was tough to draft behind the guys. I have been working on my riding skills and I was not ready to do this ride in the wind alone. After 50 miles with Jeff and Curtis, Karel, Cody and I took a left turn home. A left turn into head wind and boy, it was strong. I couldn't believe how the wind was blowing.
Now, I must talk about my Karel and how amazing he is. He was averaging 18-19mph and the wind was pushing us backward. I couldn't believe how steady he was and how controlled he was on his bike. Even Cody, who was infront of me, was having a tough time in the wind. After an hour of pulling us we finally made a turn into a semi-tailwind (not really but after the head wind, it felt great!). I just couldn't believe how strong Karel was and I told him I would make him pancakes anytime he wanted for the next 2 months. If it wasn't for Karel, I think I would have fallen over on the side of the road and just cried until someone felt bad for me and picked me up.
After reading my previous post on the double 10K's I thought about the comments of how I stayed motivated. I was very impressed with myself during the ride this morning that I didn't complain and I didn't give myself a bad attitude. I have a tendency to complain to Karel when we ride because it is hard, tough and I always hurt. But, I am using these base training months on my bike to get me to a place where I can ride strong, hurt and enjoy what I am doing. I know I want to get stronger and workouts like today will get me there. The ride was just a tempo ride for the guys and for me drafting, my HR was controlled. The muscles hurt and I had to keep myself focused. I thought about my form, riding style and just kept myself entertained with my music and with my thoughts of upcoming races.
When we got home, I couldn't wait to get my feet warm! They were cold during the entire ride. We rode 3 hours and 33 min and got in 70 miles. I was super excited to see my Campy and I couldn't wait to eat my whole wheat blueberry pancakes that I always make on Sunday after we ride.
Karel received a phone call from Jeff, after he got a ride home from Curtis. After we left Curtis and Jeff, they had at least 30 more miles to Curtis's home. They decided they wouldn't draft off each other so after riding side by side, Jeff couldn't even make it 6 miles to his car after they got to Curtis's house. Jeff said that the wind was so bad (this is a TT champion and former NFL player speaking) that he and Curtis bonked so bad that he couldn't even ride his bike a few more miles to his car at the bike shop at the beach. I'm glad I wasn't the only one suffering.
So, after feeling completely exhausted and ready for a nap (which I never took) I bent over to take off my shoes and there was Campy. Super excited to see me, he jumped up to get on the bed and BOOM!
Right into my eye.
I busted into tears and just started crying. Crying so loud that Karel came into the room and was so worried about me. Campy was shaking and he felt so bad and I knew it wasn't Campy's fault. The combination of a windy 70-mile ride and getting punched in the face was not a good mix. Campy gave me a few kisses on my face and after I wiped away my tears I could feel my left eye and how puffy it was getting. After taking a quick shower, I noticed my eye was getting blue and after the pancakes I noticed that I had a black eye.


Yes, my 10 lb. dog beat me up. But that's ok, I love him anyways.
What a day and what a weekend. But now the excitement is over and it is back to school tomorrow :(
I've never been injured on my face before but I've always wanted to say this and now I can...
"sure my eye is bad but you should have seen what I did to the other guy" :)