Bird Is The Word.

I am competing (if you can call it that) in the Dubuque Duathlon in about a week. I have been running like crazy, with Amanda forcing me every day. She says we are increasing our time spent running each week, but it feels like every day. One day it's, "Let's run for 35 minutes this week." The next DAY it's up to 40. She's trying for 45, but I'm throwing a fit. I am feeling surprisingly confident in my running abilities now, since we have been killing it this summer!
Even more surprising....my difficulty biking a portion of the course today. Biking has always been easier for me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I only just picked up my bike 2 days ago, after ditching it in the front yard the second I finished RAGBRAI last year. It still needed to be repaired from its terrible RAGBRAI injury. Amanda and I went for a nice 20 miler that night, and I felt good, despite my horribly painful bike butt.
Today was a different story. We started out with a quick one-mile run around part of the course, and then biked one of the two loops on the course, and finished with another (much less quick) one-mile run.

First run = fast, felt good.
Bike = ugh.
Second run = double ugh.

We had driven the bike course the day before and knew what we were up against. This monster of a hill, right off the bat. I think I had nightmares about this hill last night. And sure enough, it lived up to my perceptions. It. Was. Awful. Even Amanda, who is in WAY better shape, agreed! But we eventually made it up. At a snail's pace. God, I hope there are other amateurs at this race, or I will be very discouraged. The rest of the course was kind of fun. Lots of little ups and downs. The downs were very fun!

And then came the bird.

Here I am, minding my business, huffing along on my bike, when I hear/feel a flutter upon my head. That's right. A freaking bird landed/beat upon my helmet! For several seconds. I screamed and swatted at it, and it flew away, but not far. Now, I'm not a big fan of these aggressive red-wing blackbirds, ever since another one lunged/squawked at me as I was finishing up a run too close to its nest a few weeks ago. But this was too much. Needless to say, every chirp or squawk I heard after this was followed by the assumption that I was being attacked again. It was not a peaceful rest of the ride. What the hell, birds? Does exercising Andrea just look like a meal to these birds? Are they kind of like vultures, just waiting for me to give up? Did my black helmet peering up at him look like another bird taunting him? And lastly, do they make bird repellent I could spray before my next ride/run? Too much.
I guess we'll see what attacks me next time.
The running after biking was weird. Usually, I take that jello-leg feeling right to the couch, but this time, I had to start running. What?! Weird. Then slow. Then really slow. This is going to be really hard.