BIKE??

Since ALL I have going on is a tennis league and training for the half marathon, I figured I might as well add some biking to the mix...lol!  No big deal.  Jen and Jeff invited me to come with them on a little road bike trip yesterday and I happily jumped at the chance.
I think I may have alluded to Greg's lack of romance somewhere in this blog before, but Valentine's Day is a holiday where he usually goes all out (usually flowers, candy, Bath and Body Works stuff, etc...)  Our first Valentine's Day together, back in 2001 was one where he set the bar particularly high- he bought be a new road bike!  Mind you, this was after only two months of dating, so you know he must have thought I was a keeper if he was willing to shell out all that cash just so we could bike together :) Awww...
Like tennis, biking was an activity I did a lot as a kid.  My parents were into having us do all these activities as a family.  We went through the tennis phase, the biking phase, the sailing phase, etc...  When we biked we all had the gear- helmets, spare tires, bike shorts, padded gloves, etc...  We easily did 25 mile rides on any given bike day, often planning around places to stop for lunch and/or ice cream (that's my kind of ride!).  New England has some really great places to ride with paved trails and wide road shoulders (not like Charlotte- boo!).  It's beautiful and scenic and I used to love riding up there.
When Greg got me my bike, back when we lived in Northern Virginia, we would occasionally go on the W&OD Trail (Washington and Old Dominion Trail), which is a great paved trail that stretches from where we lived in Loudoun County, all the way to Alexandria, VA.  It's 45 miles long.  Eventually we also got mountain bikes, and found ourselves using those more and the road bikes have kinda been gathering dust for a while.
Enter Jen's husband Jeff- a seriously avid biker and triathlete.  Jeff got both Jen and I out there on the bike yesterday and it felt REALLY GREAT :)  We did about 15 miles around our area.  It was so fun.  It made me wonder why I ever stopped road biking.  Jeff's been trying to get Jen to do some triathlons like he does and she's decided to do one sometime soon.  Now I think I might be bitten by the bug too after getting back on the bike yesterday.  I figured if I'm doing solid running, and add some solid biking, all I really will need to work on is swimming.  I've always been a decent swimmer.  My biggest fear is running into a buoy (I know someone that happened to!) or another swimmer.  I'm not sure about my ability to swim in a straight line.  That's yet to be tested.  But I'm willing to try it!  I'm going to get through my half marathon first, but I think I've set my sights on my next goal :)