My love/ hate relationship with my ......... BIKE

Let me preface this with, even though I have been a triathlete for the past 6 years, I am a runner!!! I have been running for a much longer time than I have been swimming, biking, and running. Swimming I am proficient at. Running is my outlet - my place to release stress, anger, enjoy the scenery, and struggle through with a great feeling after I have completed it. I love to run. BIKING though, UGH!!! I try sooooooo hard. I can have great rides and then they take a nasty turn halfway through and I get passed by someone who is not trying while I am dieing. Today is a good example. I have been working my butt off (literally - see below) on the trainer all winter - not the same as riding outside due to hills, slanted roads, potholes, hills, and weather. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go for a bike ride since I did a long run yesterday. I started and felt good. I hit a turn about 12 miles in and then the wind hit me. I lost my form, I was struggling with cadence, I was struggling with hills (which I haven't been on very much since I have been on the trainer). My toes were cold or numb - not sure which. Then my mind goes to a place where I hate being on the bike and I want to get off. So, today I loved being outside and then I hated being on the bike. Plus, I feel like when I ride in Schenectady I must have a sign on my back that says "I want you to try to hit me so that I can get practice in avoiding your monstrous car!!!" because SUV's seem to think I don't belong on the road. Well, sorry to burst their bubble but I DO BELONG ON THE ROAD SO GIVE ME MY 3 FT!!!!! I wish I lived in a more biker friendly area. I had a good end to my ride though. I stopped thinking negatively and started thinking of the positives: 1. This is the earliest I have ever been out on the road during a season, 2. I did 31 miles today - March 15 - on an easy ride - which is great for my training, 3. I didn't feel extremely tired the entire time although hills were challenging, it was ok, and 4. I know I started to fast and can learn from my mistake - slow down!!! The Lake Placid Ironman course will be unforgiving if I start out too fast and I know it. Learn that now and survive Ironman.

On a side note..... All of this biking, swimming, and running is allowing me to gain some weight (YIPPIE! NOT!!!) but my butt is now an extension of my upper thighs or maybe it is an extension of my lower back - I am not sure. Anyway, I don't have a butt anymore. No one told me that that would happen. Noone told me that I would gain weight even though I am always hungry and don't feel like I am bigger. I looked back at pictures from Tinman last year and I had no butt in my finishing shots there too. Did it never come back after Tinman, I am pretty sure it did as I was able to keep up my pants without the necesesity for use of a belt for the first half of the school year but now, not able to. Where did it go?? It is missing!!! So, if anyone has my rear end, let me know as I miss it and want it back if only for the fact that I want to stop pulling my pants up all of the time and I don't look as good in clothes without it! If your solution is to buy new clothes, that won't work because my thighs are now even bigger than they were due to (again) swimming, biking, and running - so smaller sizes won't fit my thighs even though they fit my rear end and my waist. What a fantastic dilemma!!!