Any Spice Girls fans out there?? Today, was the day, when 2 became 1…
I went clipless!! It was both good and bad… but I’ll get to that. First! The best bowl of oats to ever grace this fine Earth…
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1/2 scoop chocolate whey powder
- 1/2 a banana
- unsweetened coconut
- chocolate chips
- crunchy peanut butter
Sometimes oatmeal keeps me going forever, sometimes it leaves me a little empty. Today was one of those empty days. Luckily, I had an amazing snack before heading out.
Cinnamon raisin bagel with chai marmalade. Holy yum.
I’ve realized that sitting actually makes the stiffness in my hip worse, so I tried to be up and about all day. I wandered downtown in the sunshine after stopping into work for a bit (on my day off!!). Then I came home to make lunch.
Tuna salad on an Arnold’s sandwich thin with mini cucumbers and cantaloupe. Loved the sandwich thins!
Lunch dessert…
PB Ecstasy chocolate truffle. I don’t think it needs to be said that this was delicious. I especially love truffles, the texture is always amazing.
Then it was off to the dentist! I like the idea of having my teeth cleaned, but dang… it hurt. My gums are still sore from being sawed into with dental floss. On the bright side, it’s kept me from chewing gum for the remainder of the day.
After some more wandering, I came home and started fuelling for my bike ride. I headed straight for the coveted chai Luna. I’ve been putting Lori’s box o’ treats to work all day 
Absolute love. Holy moly. The chai spices in it were perfect, and I think there was even little bits of tea? As much as I love chocolate, it’s so nice to have a nutrition bar that isn’t chocolate. Especially after the PowerBar overload yesterday.
About an hour after this, I also had half a banana with PB. It was the perfect amount of energy and food in my belly for the ride. I’ve quickly discovered I need more food for biking. Unlike running and swimming, my digestion system doesn’t get that disrupted on the bike.
I planned on doing a 40k endurance ride today. In retrospect, I probably should have done a shorter ride for my first time using the clipless pedals. Within 5 minutes my quads were sore from pulling up on the pedals. I definitely still have to figure out the proper motion of it.
I rode around in my parking lot a few minutes before heading out. I was actually feeling a lot more confident than expected. I didn’t crash hopping on, and I was able to get my shoes clipped in almost immediately. I stayed on my bike until I got to the halfway point, when I wanted to hop off to switch my water bottles around. Apparently, I should have been more worried about dismounting than mounting because I crashed trying to get off!!!
Okay, it wasn’t that bad. I was slowing to a stop anyways. I’m not really sure what happened, I think I may have lost my balance when I put my foot on the ground (as you can see above, the shoes aren’t flat). Since I was still partially attached to the bike with my other foot, I fell over sideways onto the gravel shoulder. It didn’t hurt, but there was blood. I scraped my knee and had to use a good amount of my bottled water cleaning the gravel out of it.
I was actually scared it wasn’t going to stop bleeding, but I didn’t have anything on me to put over it. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel that embarrassed. I knew the day was coming! At least I wasn’t going that fast. And I’m a little proud of my first cycling battle wound 
The rest of the ride went smoothly, and I managed to dismount the bike without incident when I came home. The stats:
Duration: 1:37 (including time spent bleeding)
Distance: 38 km (23.6 miles)
Avg speed: 23.56 km/h (14.6 mph)
Max HR: 153
Avg HR: 138
Calories: 707
Overall, not too shabby considering there was a little break in there. I hope to get a bike computer soon so my distance and speed can be more accurate.
Came home and immediately had some potassium in the form of cantaloupe while I stretched and foam rolled.
Then I made a very boring dinner because it was 8pm and didn’t feel like cooking.
Turkey and swiss pita. The carrots were a bad idea with my mutilated professionally flossed gums.
And finally, some quick thoughts on Selene Yeager’s “Every Woman’s Guide to Cycling.”
Thumbs up! It really does have everything beginners need to know. The writing is entertaining, concise and informative. I really appreciated a woman’s take on cycling. Most sport and fitness things I read are written by men, so it was refreshing. The section on how to buy a bike is particularly good. I also really liked her cycling tips, especially the ones involving changing gears and hill climbing. It was also nice to hear about saddle issues from a women’s point of view. From the beginning my, ahem, “girly bits” have taken a severe beating. I thought I was alone in this because I’d never read anything about it in the male-dominated lit. But she offers great advice on how to deal with it.
Overall, if any of you are women who are new to cycling buy this book! It obviously doesn’t have every little detail you’ll need to know, but it will give you enough so you don’t feel lost and overwhelmed.
Well, I think I’m going to crawl into bed, catch up on a few blogs and hit the hay. For some reason when I was making my schedule for the week, I thought it would be a good idea to do a 6:45 am spin class after a long evening bike ride. As if that’s happening. I’m thinking I’ll sleep in and do a pool/treadmill brick instead. Have a great hump day!!! 
Haha I have that spice girls song stuck in my head now
Those clipless pedals look so cool! Thanks for the closeup of how they look. I’ve never seen them in action before.
OMG awesome oats! Those look perfect. I love the truffle, too!
Ouch, your poor knee
I’d probably get a lot more hurt if I tried those pedals, though! Haha, good attitude–this makes you hardcore!
Have a good night!
Bike computer\’s are the best. I love mine and it was only $30 (it\’s a Sigma BC1106, in case you care).
Too bad about the crash but it happens to the best of us (me probably more than most). Now that you have it out of the way it should be smooth sailing.
And I\’m so jealous of your clipless riding, btw. I just bought new clipless pedals but I just don\’t have the funds to shell out for the shoes yet.
Oh man, that song takes me back!
I have no idea what cliples are but they look cool!
I have never seen mini cucumbers like that! That is so cute…are they sweeter than regular ones?
YAY! I love my clipless system, I fell twice on my first ride on them…luckily in the grass, though. I didn’t get any battle wounds quite so impressive as yours! Ouch!
I have the Cateye Strada with cadence and I love it. It’s really helpful to be able to seem my speed and cadence as I’m riding.
Great job with the pedals! Everyone falls once when they start. I did somewhat the same thing: I knew I was coming to a stop, took my left foot out of the pedal to touch the ground, but I got off balance and my bike turned right. My right foot was still in the pedal! It was like slow-motion falling over. But really, my pride was bruised more than anything, as I fell over right next to a truck full of high school boys!
Kudos to you on the food ideas! My new favorite breakfast is an Ezekiel English Muffin, Lowfat Organic Cream Cheese and smoked citrus salmon! Love, love, love it.
Great job on the ride. For what it’s worth, I love the “Cat Eye” computers. I think mine was only $36! It does cadence too, and is wireless.
I found that this year I got faster, and I think it was a combination of getting in more mileage plus focusing more on keeping cadence, rather than just gear and speed.
I’m not a pro by any means… I may check out that book!
In response to your note about One:
I knew it was right from the coconut, but I do think one commenter took literally my use of the word flavor (as in flavorING) and I just edited that. To me, when I use the term whole or wholesome food, it means it is whole, not processed, no additives, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Looking forward to trying today for my brick training!
Really random thought completely unrelated to anything – I saw ‘I Love You Man’ on the weekend at the cinemas and in one of the scenes, there is an old old man eating canteloupe with cottage cheese in it. I thought of you! Haha.
Anyway, back to your post! I’m loving the massive amount of chai-ness I’m seeing. I would love to try that marmalade and the luna bar. I love all things try and must try these when I’m in your hemisphere later this year!
I love the Spice Girls… and I love that you went clip-less. Go you! Not so good about the knee-scraping but on the other hand, it makes you look really hardcore and cool (maybe?)
Have a great day!
LOVE the Spice Girls and I LOVE the looks of that breakfast and truffle! Things I don’t love? The dentist and crashing
Hope your knee is okay! I cut the top of my knee open one time and it didn’t stop bleeding for days! I had to put steri-strips on it which helped a little.
you are so hardcore! what an amazing ride! glad the clipless thing is working. I am sure you will get used to it quickly. too bad you feel at the end of the ride but it’s better than during.
I love the snack. I am a bagel fiend. I could eat them for all three meals and then some haha
Have a great day and I hope you’re not sore at all!
Lara – the mini cucumbers taste the same as the big ones. They are super crunchy on the outside though, with a soft centre because seeds are bunched up in the middle. Does that make sense? They’re kind of weird actually… I keep expecting a pickle taste!
Oh no! Now I am really scared to get the clip shoes! Owie! Hope you don’t feel too sore from that today.
Nice ride, too!
Glad you like the Chai tea bar – I think they put a nice amount of cardamom and pepper in them (the best parts of chai, IMHO).
I need to check out that book!
I am going to have Spice Girls in my head all evening! Looks cool and glad it went okay- am sure it will get easier as you adjust!
That does look like a pretty fabulous bowl of oats!
Now the spice grils song is in my head! haha
All your food looks SO good! It’s making me want chocolate
Glad you loved the Luna flavor! And that sucks about your knee…I feel running a few weeks back and skinned my knee in the exact same spot!!
Glad you’re okay!
Great combination for your oatmeal!
battle wound! that sucks you shed blood but hey, scars are cool
at least i dig em. i kind of have to since i have an 8″ long one on my arm.
now i am on the lookout for the chai bar. i love chai! so good, i make chai protein drinks sometimes with tazo chai concentrate. hmmmm maybe i will today.
surprised to see the old man snack without the cottage cheese
oh and the lunch with the tuna looks SO good! i dont have arnold thins here.. dang. seriously the topping looks way good though, how do you make your tuna salad?
love the first few shots, especially the first one, cool angle of your feets!
xo
Awesome workout! And that truffle looks divine!
I’ve tried that chai tea luna bar, but I thought it was pretty bad
Somehow the flavor was just a tad bit “off” for me…
hehe, battle wounds are cool! As long as they don’t leave a scar. I’ve got too many battle wounds all over my legs…unfortunately, they’re permanent!
Janetha, the tuna salad was especially good! I added chopped tomato, red pepper and chives then mixed it up with dijonnaise, laughing cow and pepper. Obviously, as I’m sure you know, the laughing cow is the key ingredient
Yay clipless! Glad to hear it was easy to get into them…
If its any consolation… i’ve only every fallen in clipless pedals once; my fist time riding them
[...] Magazine but also wrote a wonderful book called Every Woman’s Guide to Cycling (which I reviewed here). Much of today’s workout was taken from a video she did for the Bicycling website, featuring [...]