Thursday, March 25, 2010

got bats?

don't forget to get in on the action for the 2nd reader appreciation giveaway! go here and follow the directions. thanks to RoadID and Outside|PR, i have 3 RoadID's to giveaway. the giveaway ends next monday, March 29th
 at noon est.



i forgot all about these little icky creatures until this morning on my run. i'm thinking they were waiting for the warmer weather so they could come out and play. you never know where they're aiming because they fly up and down and are so erratic. last year, one almost hit me in the face as i was running along the golf course in my hood. so now i have a new strategy. when i see them flying all around (i can usually see them because they fly up near the lit up street lights), i put my hands over my face and peek thru my fingers as i run past where they are. thankfully no one is around to see how silly that must look but i just don't want to have a face full of bat or an eye taken out by one. With so many animal encounters, i'm beginning to think i live in a wildlife preserve...deer, hogs, wild turkeys, sand hill cranes, rattlesnakes galore, gators, bobcat, armadillos, racoons, etc...

these are the other pests i've run into lately on my bike rides. i've encountered them on 3 of the last 4 rides i've done and they won't move for shit! they will also lunge at you to try and peck you with their beaks. they are probably the dumbest birds known to man. most birds will fly to get out of your way, not these! they also like to peck shiny cars. a former personal training client of mine came for a session one morning and parked her black, shiny mercedes near these crazy birds and they could see their refletion in the car and started pecking at her car. she had to go out and move the car away from them.

enough animal encounters for today, i hope. still have round 2 on my run this afternoon since i woke up late. i have a really good excuse for waking up late the last couple of days. i won't blame daylight saving time anymore. the last 2 days, the park by our house that we usually do our afternoon/evening rides at, has been closed for hog hunting...that's right, hog hunting because they are a huge problem, so we have done our crit ride in the hood the last 2 days. let me just tell you how this ride just kicks my butt! the intensity of these rides is incredible thanks to jc and jm. i love riding with boys! we end up getting done around 7 or 8 pm depending on when we start the ride, so coming down off of the adrenaline rush is very hard. it gets me so revved up that come 9pm, my usually bed time, i'm still too wired, which then leads to my waking up later than planned in the morning. i still managed to get in a decent run, but not the full run that i wanted. no worries though, the day is young.

hope everyone has a fab day. the weekend is almost upon us, hang tight! much love and peace out!

18 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a lot of wildlife to contend with. Right now the only wildlife I have to worry about are deer or as my husband calls them, big rats!

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  2. Come on now. Bats eat X amount of insects blah blah blah … I hate them too.

    We just get the deer, snakes, turkeys, owls, vultures, etc – did I mention the snakes.

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  3. Love how you run past the bats - I would do the same! My close encounters have been mostly with moose and partridge...

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  4. HAHA Those sand cranes are absolutely the dumbest birds and they sound like teradactyls (or what I imagine they would sound like). Our trail just had a hog hunt and I am very grateful for it - those things are nasty. Hope you get the rest of your run in! Happy training!

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  5. We used to have a lot of bats in Michigan, and I would see them when I ran at night. Eww. Have a great weekend!

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  6. if I had bats on my run route, I would likely change where I ran. I hate rodents!!! your crit ride sounds great! Have a good run tonight! Cheers

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  7. Maybe dodging bats and other critters engages muscles you wouldn't otherwise? ; )

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  8. I am picturing you running with your hands over your face ... that is pretty funny!

    I had a deer scare the beejezus out of me this morning on my run ... turned the corner and it was right there ...probably scared it even worse than it scared me!

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  9. one of those birds could seriously do some damage to a cyclist. yikes!

    wear garlic spray, you know, in case one of those bats gets hungry for ya blooood! haha!

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  10. Gators, Armidillos, rattle snakes, thats almost enough to scare me from your training routes.

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  11. i had a nasty run in with geese last summer, i tried riding around them and they chased after me! it was actually quite scary because they hissed and spread their wings too.
    then i've had multiple problems with this other animal...easily the dumbest species, they get in my way and give me dirty looks...humans, who needs them!

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  12. We had a summer with bats in our house. They scared the life out of me when I woke up to find one flying over my head.

    Be careful. A lot of bats carry rabies.

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  13. Ha ha...that's hilarious how you cover your face when there are bats..I would totally do the same thing.

    I've run into a bunch of geese before on bike rides and they really freak me out. They start honking and look like they're going to charge and peck at me. Usually I have to raise my voice to get them to move out of the way. They're crazy!

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  14. We were on a nite ride once and my friend got hit in the chest with a bat as we were riding along. FREAKY!

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  15. Hmm, I've never had a bat encounter before. But, yes, on those sand cranes. I hate turkey vultures worse, though, as they sometimes move when you approach but sometimes not until the last minute and will fly into you and knock you off feet or bike. Dam buzzards!

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  16. I'm actually a bit jealous of our cool animal encounters! Obnoxious though they may be. How fun to see all those animals while you're out!

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