Bicycles, Balance, and Bees (Oh my!)

Last spring, sometime after the wetsuit swim, but before the Danskin race, Patty and I decided to go on a nice 20 mile bike ride on a Saturday so we would be sure that our legs could handle the 11.5 miles we would do on race day.  By that point we had been doing our weekly after-work rides and I had graduated to crash-pad-free cycling (Yay, me!)

But, I did of course have my trusty helmet,

my bike gloves to keep my hands from numbing up,

my top tube padding to protect the nether regions,

my bike computer, to help keep track of all the important things you need to keep track of while biking (I believe *cadence* is an important tracking statistic in order to uh, you know, keep track of your, um...well, hey! Isn't it fancy?? )

and my biker jacket

...er, biking jacket.

We headed off for a nice out and back on the gentlest of slopes. ("Out and back", for those not in-the-know, means that you bike, or run, *out* one way, then turn around and go *back* the same way...pretty clever, eh?)

Dave came along but we did not insist he keep our more, shall we say, leisurely pace.

We were enjoying our ride and got to the 10 mile marker, at which point I encouraged Patty to have some energy gel so that she wouldn't flag over the next 10 miles.  I gave her some very helpful advice to get past the taste and texture as she had never had it before.

All was going wonderfully well and I was feeling just oh-so-competent.  And then we got to mile 16.  By this point the sun had come out.

Patty and I were chatting about something very pleasant

when all of a sudden I heard a strange, low noise that rapidly moved from somewhere around my left ear to up under the right side of my helmet...



COME BACK FOR THE CONCLUSION THIS WEEKEND!