Lots of planning goes into a long ride. And if you don’t plan you risk leaving behind something you need…. Like a purse. I did that not too long ago as I scrambled to get my things together one Saturday morning before our long ride. At which point Goldilocks renamed me, “Deadbeat Wife”.
Planning consists of:
- Emails/Text messages between the group to get everyone on the same page in terms of time to start (both meet time and actual push off time – push off time is approx 30min – 1 hour after meet time). No I’m serious. Negotiations on this can go on for a few days...
- Emails/Text messages to get on the same page in terms of route we plan to take (for the record I hate the River Trail… Goldilocks swears by it) Again, negotiations take a few days... often times with a passive aggressive approach by not responding to someone's suggestion
- Research on the weather - our group is pretty bad on this one and usually show up under/over dressed
- Wardrobe approval - Adult Supervision and I love this one!
- Organizing/Packing all the items needed for the ride, run and post workout
- Calculating calories
- Calling Adult Supervision to confirm I’ve got the right number of calories
- Doing a quick drop by at Rock n Road cyclery to buy more calories cuz I don't have enough (per Adult Supervision)
- Filling bottles, filling baggies with white stuff (our calories in transport) and pulling Gu/Cliffshots/Hammer Gels/Fig Newtons/Salt Tablets/Advil
- “Carbo” loading the night before - 2 glasses of wine
- Hydrating the night before -4 glasses of water to offset the wine
- And, ah! Finally relaxing after you have the bike, helmet, pump, shoes and running gear prepacked in the car so you can sleep in 20 more minutes...
So, because that's a lot to expect a single gal to do on a Friday night, I made a list which is on my fridge. Sadly, I have to check EVERY time I pack for our long rides:
Yup, purse is now on the list...
(And yes, it's true, my bike is on the list… you can never be too prepared)
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