Train-n-Tri: Solo Saturday

I was meant to spend the morning with myself.

At 7:30 a.m. I was at Sycamore Canyon waiting for the local bike shop people to join their Saturday morning mountain bike ride.

They never showed up.

Now, I have ridden in Sycamore Canyon numerous times with my guy and friends.

NEVER ALONE.

I've ridden my road bike out on the road by myself with the thinking that if I crashed or had a problem, someone driving by would see me and stop and help.

But who would see me out here?

I did have my phone with me and I could always call someone, but what if I wasn't able to call?

I paused and thought about it for a couple of minutes.

Darn it, I didn't drive here and get all ready, just to turn around and leave without getting some kind of ride in.

So I turned on the Garmin and clipped in and pedaled off, telling myself I would just play it safe and keep it easy.

I rode on the fire road for about 10 minutes and enjoyed watching the scampering bunnies and the low-flying hawks.

I stopped to watch a large roadrunner. I wanted to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera out of my backpack, the bird had run off. With my camera stuck into my back pocket for easy access, I pedaled on.

My next stop was a bridge.

This is NOT the bridge, but similar to the one where I stopped. Don't ask me why I didn't take a picture of it. My guess is my brain was too busy trying to decide if I was going to walk or ride my bike to the other side. The Sycamore Canyon bridge looks more professionally made than this one - but it did have a broken board toward the end of it. That broken board made my decision easy.

WALK.

I walked here, too. There is a stream that was pretty deep and you can see the pipe that goes across it. I walked across the pipe and pushed my bike through.

Normally - and normally being NOT being alone - I would have ridden across the bridge and through the water.

Really, I DID ride my bike, not push my bike, most of the time.

After getting over my nervousness of riding alone, I started to enjoy myself. A couple of times I even looked down at my Garmin and thought, "Yikes. I better slow down."

My heart rate monitor must need a new battery because it would cut out in some places. I laughed when going up a 13 percent grade hill, my heart rate was at 72. Actually I didn't laugh because I was breathing too hard to laugh, so I knew my heart rate was more like 160. I just took it as a message to enjoy the ride and stop looking at my heart rate.

But I did look again and it was ---. And since I was still alive, I stopped looking at the screen.

I did take another stop when I saw this lovely native plant.

While I was taking a picture of the plant, a Ruby Throated Hummingbird came down and buzzed around my head.

This is NOT my picture. I didn't get a picture of the bird because it was so fast and I couldn't look at it and enjoy it and look to point my phone camera at the same time. It took a quick drink from the plant and flew off.

My peaceful ride came to a close after about an hour when about 50 guys from the Specialized team hit the trails.

I was no longer alone.

I got home and thought I might have time to make it to the Mary S. Roberts' Walk with the Animals, a 1.3 mile walk to raise money for the pet adoption center.

I asked Willie, my dog, if he wanted to drive in the car to walk 1.3 miles, or if he just wanted to use the time and run. He might have barked, "Rof," but it sounded like "Run."

I remembered to start my Charity Miles before we headed out and Willie and I ran 3.8 miles for Wounded Warrior, thanks to SunRype, which sponsors my run and bike miles for charity.

And my day was NOT all solo, though I did drive to Hemet solo and to pick up my daughter for her overnight visit with me. We stopped by Louie's Nursery and picked out some plants so she could plant my patio planter.