TerRAIN Pain, Wet Sloppy Kisses, and the Best Gift Ever

Day: 7 (Daleville, VA to Radford, VA)
Average Speed: 10.6 MPH
Miles Cycled Today: 52.8
Miles Cycled Total: 384
Mood: Overwhelmed and Overjoyed

An Early Birthday Gift

It's Nine AM Somewhere!

There's nothing quite like waking in the morning, fixing a coffee, getting ready to greet the day, and finding your motel neighbor chugging a room temperature Bud Light tallboy outside your door. That's Junior for you! Junior sounds exactly like Harvey Fierstein with an intensely thick southern accent. I could only make sense of every 5th or 6th syllable that he uttered. I usually nodded vaguely with a couple of "uh-huh"s thrown in there to feign understanding while at the same time wondering if Google Translate had a Junior-friendly setting. 

But me and Junior did have one thing in common: We were both wearing the same exact outfit we had on yesterday! Only I guarantee my underwear is cleaner since I haven't worn any yet. (TMI?)

Do you ever see a cyclist riding in the rain, and say to yourself "That must suck!" Well, I have news for you. It does. 

The Hills of Catawba in the Rain

Neither the rain nor the terrain played nice today. And both dampened my mood. While the scenery continued to be gorgeous, my mind wasn't really in it. The hills were frequent and extremely steep. Like a backwards roller coster that goes more up than down. It was hard to get into "uphill mode" because, as steep as the climbs were, they weren't long enough. But I whimpered "Not again!" like a little baby every time I saw a doozy ahead. 

Also, somewhere along the line, I maybe probably definitely injured my right quad. The pain started slow, but by the end of today's ride it was pretty much on fire. So there's that. 

A Terrible Sign to See on a Bike

Everything just seemed so... annoying today. Like this detour. Do you know what it's like to hit a detour sign on a bike and have no clue how many miles it's going to take you out of your way? I was in a dead zone and couldn't Google it, and it wasn't pictured on my map. 

What do you do? 

I debated carrying the bike across the bridge that was being worked on, but they had that thing blocked off pretty good... and it looked pretty dangerous. Eventually I just crossed my fingers and decided to follow the orange arrow, which caused much angst (It worked out... but still... the not knowing... arrggh!)

Today's Terrain

Also, I had been warned several times about the intense climb into Christiansburg (where I wrote "Wow.") and the anticipation of it gave me more than a bit of anxiety, especially with my right leg acting up.  

Yet somehow, I did get myself into "uphill mode" [ONE... MORE... PEDAL:...] when I finally got there. 

Don't get me wrong- it was a struggle. But I didn't feel the quad burning and just kept at it. 

Here's a quick embarrassing vid of me getting my ass kicked at the tail end of that climb. The amount of grunting would embarrass Monica Seles. NOTE: I promise you the hill is MUCH MUCH steeper than it looks on film. Go take a picture of a hill up close if you don't believe me... they never look steep head-on in a camera. 

                 

But ironically, what made the day truly difficult was knowing that Hanna would be waiting for me just 52.8 miles away. 

A few days ago, she decided on a whim that she wanted to drive down from New York to see me for a day. Either I'm the shittiest boyfriend in the world (Hey babe, what do you say we make Radford, Virginia our summer getaway spot for like 28 hours?), or she's the best girlfriend in the world. 

I couldn't wait to see her, which made the ride that much harder. Every mile seemed like ten.

I stared at my tripmeter, watching and waiting for each tenth mile to pass. 

It's like being in a painfully boring class and staring at the minute hand on the clock. You know that only makes it worse, but you do it anyway. 

The last mile to the hotel we booked (I sprung for a La Quinta! Ooh la la!) took an eternity. But the reward couldn't be sweeter. I was covered in wet, passionate kisses as soon as I landed in the parking lot... by Hanna's dog, Lina.

Lina Attacking me with Kisses

Lina Licking the Sweat from My Helmet

Lina is 95 pounds of pure muscle, but she's the only one who doesn't know that. She immediately pounced on me, sending my bike to the pavement and nearly knocking me over as well. I'm sure the delicious taste of my sweat had something to do with it, but this dog would not stop licking me for a solid 15 minutes. 

Hanna greeted me with a kiss too, but was way more turned off by my ripeness than Lina. 

The Perfect Gift

If you don't know Hanna, you're missing out. She's thoughtful, generous, empathetic, and hilarious. 

Rather than simply handing me the things I asked her to get, she wrapped it up into an adorable early birthday gift (see top of post). She also took the time to bring some supplies from my house that I needed and left New York at 3 AM to get down here as soon as she could. 

And this was all her idea. 

Hanna and I at Sharkey's... the Local BBQ Joint

I am beyond overjoyed that I am getting to spend two more nights with her (I'm taking tomorrow as my one and only rest day) when I thought there wouldn't be any until the end of summer. 



I mentioned in an earlier post that when I go into "uphill mode" I can only think one thought. A few times, the thought I used was about how lucky I am- to have the opportunity to do this. 



I tried to use the "I'm so lucky..." thought today (I'm so lucky that Hanna actually came to see me), but it wasn't working... it was just making me painfully aware of how badly I wanted to get to my destination immediately. 

By the way, I thought it was July 4th the entire day today. Hanna informed me it was the 3rd. Now I really don't care about a zero mile day tomorrow! I just got a whole day back!

P.S.

Happy Fourth of July!

'Merica!