1. You can’t procrastinate on training. As I posted in my latest blog, my schedule doesn’t exactly allow for me to ride very often during the week. Last week, I wasn’t able to make any of the team rides until one on Friday afternoon. I thought I’d be okay physically because I had spent some time at the gym and played a bit of full court basketball. But I was surprised when I started feeling really tired during that Friday ride. I also remembered I hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night... which brings me to the next lesson.

2. Get sleep and eat well! You can’t skip breakfast and expect to ride hard that afternoon. Even a meal full of carbs for lunch and an energy bar before riding doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t take long to run out of energy. So eat and get rest!

3. Listen hard and follow directions! On Wednesday afternoon, I joined Dan, Jared Mu, and Kelsey on a ride. After our hilly route to Bee Caves, we decided to take a familiar route on loop 360 north up to Jollyville. After a while, the sky was getting darker, and it was starting to drizzle. Dan slowed down a bit to tell Jared and I to take the 2222 exit. But instead of us actually taking the road, he meant for us to simply exit and get back on 360 (for safety reasons with on/off ramp traffic). I just thought he’d wanted to get back to campus faster. So Jared and I went on 2222, while Dan went on 360 with Kelsey. Yea… that was dumb. Don’t ever ride on 2222. Jared and I had to hug the shoulder to stay out of the road. Thankfully, there weren’t that many cars. Jared and I finally stopped at the Mt. Bonnelle road intersection. Dan had texted us to turn back to go on 360… but by that time, we were too far to turn back. Plus, we didn’t want to return on a tiny shoulder lane. So Jared and I took Mt. Bonnelle back to campus. I was already super exhausted by that time, and there were huge hills ahead of us. But I did it! It wasn’t a problem for Jared, though. He’s a beast!

So… safety first! Dark + cold + rainy + hilly + separated from the group + desperately trying to get home = bad experience.

Peace.