Bike Riding and Buying

My secret plan to infest the world with cyclists has grabbed another rider! Erin's already signed up to do the Montclair Triathlon with us in a few weeks, but until now she'd been planning on riding her mountain bike. But that changed yesterday...

Saturday we met up with Erin and biked the Mount Vernon trail. It's a fairly technical trail, as well as being crowded that day, so our average speed was actually pretty slow, and she's fit so she was hanging tough. That's Erin with Stuart, still managing a smile. At our turnaround point (which actually turned out NOT to be the halfway point, we paused for a break and made friends with a family of muskrats frolicking on the banks of the Potomac.

Sometimes I think Stuart has a future as a park ranger since he constantly wants to get more dogs, take home the cute furry little things we see on the trail and generally add to our imaginary farm.

On our way back we diverted into a neighborhood to take what we thought was a "slightly" longer route but apparently made a wrong turn. Oops. We ended up on a 2-lane road with cars going 40mph. Poor Erin was not exactly thrilled, but thanks to her iPhone we made it back safely. Needless to say, the 25mi ride for her turned into upwards of 30miles, and nearly 50 for us by the time we biked back home!! The day helped her make a decision, though. Riding a mountain bike in yoga shorts(!) was the tipping point, and Sunday we headed over to Conte's to spend some of her husband Chip's hard-earned combat pay.

Two hours later.....she is the proud owner of a gorgeous full-carbon Cannondale Synapse!!! And happily enough, her brand new ride color coordinates with my beloved Orbea. While Stuart handled more yard duties, we headed out for a 22mile ride late in the day to help her get acclimated. We headed west, and at one point hit 27mph on the open stretch of trail between Vienna and Hunter Mill Road as she unleashed the power of a road bike. We took turns pulling and it was awesome!

Needless to say, I'm a bit sore today. Made it to the pool, only to have the kids swim coach point out that she hadn't seen me there in a month. oops. yeah, Kinetic was May 9th....and I haven't been to the pool since. Guess even the lifeguards have noticed. Time to get back on track with that. But in the meantime, there's the satisfaction of knowing we're converting yet another member of our friend/family circle to an awesome lifetime sport.

Oh yeah, and check out Erin's new blog! Now it's off to bed, I'm running not one but TWO 5Ks tomorrow. More on that later...