Three Days of Riding and More Tabbouli

except this time, it's not the food, but the song. Yes, the tabbouli song.
A friend sent a music video to me from YouTube with the Tabbouli song. The first verse begins-- Tabouli Tabouli makes me shake shake shake my bootie. Eat it with lots of felafel, eat it on top of a camel.

It just gets better from there. Plans are for a group of us to sing it at Balkan Camp.
But in the meantime, it has been my hill-climbing song. I have gone through many songs to keep a steady rhythm and keep my mind off what I'm doing. I've sung everything from "I'm a Hill-Climbing Bitch" to "What Have You Done Today to Make You Feel Proud," an AIDS Lifecycle standard and hit video.

But the tabbouli song seems to be working well. It's the right speed and rhythm and makes me smile. What more could anyone want?

Jerry and I ramped up our riding this week. On Friday, we started with a short 20-mile jaunt around China Camp. Then Saturday we rode Tiburon Loop to the tune of 30 miles. Yesterday we doubled that with a ride to Point Reyes Station.

At Pt. Reyes we ran into the Positive Pedalers weekend retreat ride. What a treat to see a whole bunch of friends. We sat on the curb and ate sandwiches. Lovely day.
We averaged 11 mph which is slow, and if that is our speed on the ride there's no doubt we will get swept, so we're going to work this week at getting our speed up a bit. We are becoming more confident on the downhills and Jerry is letting off the brakes a bit more. That's really where we can make up some time. I don't have very high hopes for getting our climbing much faster. But maybe a little. As Jerry says, riding the recumbent is like riding a barcolounger, and it climbs hills like a barcolounger.

I ended the day yesterday by speaking at a fundraiser in Berkeley. Alvin and Jenny are first-time riders, doing the ride as their college graduation rite of passage. It was a small group-- everyone forgot it was Mother's Day until the last minute-- but I think they were receptive. And as I told Alvin and Jenny-- if I helped them raise an extra $10, it was worth it.

Pretty zonked, I had a good night sleep. It's going to be a good week.