Great photos Irulan! They make me think I need to take up mountain biking, even though I'm terrified by the thought!

After a week of essentially no riding (a few miles for errands, but that's it), I finally got out on a decent ride today, and it felt really nice! I spent the week covering myself in paint (and in the process, painting the front and back porches)--it just took way more time and energy than I anticipated. At least I got a good leg work out--a couple hours a day, for several days, doing crabwalks in a squat... My legs were really feeling it by the end of the week! I meant to go for a good ride on Sunday, but ended up in bed finishing a library book that was due.

Today wasn't anything epic, but it was a lot of fun--I rode over to Mercer Island and then rode the perimeter of the island in both directions, for a total of 44 miles on the day. The road around the island is gentle rollers, and there's one section in particular that has a great series of winding turns. The road is nicely banked, and riding it feels like the road is giving my bike a friendly hug and effortlessly guiding me to where I need to go. It's a fun swoopy feeling leaning one way, then the other, then the other, etc... Anyway, the terrain is constantly interesting, and there are great views through the trees--and the shade those trees provide was very welcome, since it got into the (unusual for here) 90's today.

I was enjoying the sensation of speed on the bicycle, and it felt easy to put in extra bits of effort and bursts of speed--but I don't have my computer set to display my mph (too distracting and/or depressing) so I didn't know if I was actually faster, or just feeling happy. It was nice to get home and see that I actually was fast--I set a PR going around the island, and on a couple hills on my way home. So I guess the week of squats--and the reading in bed--combined for some sort of training effect!