Thursday, March 22, 2007

Back in the saddle again.


Well, now that the ice and snow have dissipated, I have been getting some bike time in.

Thursday (3-8-07) did a 40 mile out and back road ride instead of working all afternoon.

Sunday (3-11-07) a 45 mile ride with the CMC crew to Kingdom City and back. Head wind was raging and the workout was tuff. The ½ pound hamburger after words was the best I have ever had!!

Sunday (3-18-07) I met Jamey in town and we took off down the road to meet a bigger group on the outskirts of town. It was windy and cold and full booties were in order. We pushed into the head wind and I felt like total crap. Felt like I could not breathe, felt that every incline was a big hill. I was thinking I was in for a long and wearisome ride as we were going to do the Froze Toes loop which was bound to be VERY windy. We arrived at Rt. Z right on schedule and joined the rest of the group. From there, we all headed north with the wind at our backs. Finally I was warmed up and finding my groove. We were all spinning along at a painfully slow speed as the new group was getting warmed up. Finally, Jamey broke out of the group and as he passed me I jumped on his wheel. I was feeling spunky and the tail wind had me pumped. A few others broke away and we trucked on down the road at a serous clip. I know I am not in the best shape at the moment, but I can ride smart and that is what I did the rest of the day. Later, as we headed back south on DD I found the best draft I could behind Jamey and just hung on for dear life. He later said I did a great job. I don’t think he realized how much I was avoiding the wind by staying in just the right spot. All in all, it turned out to be a solid 45 miles of hard riding and I felt great when we were done. Later Sunday evening I even managed to do a bunch of weight lifting and ab work. I had a very good day…..best one in a long time.

Monday (3-19-07) was a terrible day………worst day in years. No biking and depressed. Hopefully spring will cheer me up.

Tuesday (3-20-07) met my friend Mike D. for a little gravel riding. It was cold, windy and drizzling when we left the parking lot at about 5:45 pm. We headed east out of town and got off the main roads and on to the gravel roads as quickly as possible. I have not been on the cross bike in months and it took me a few miles to even feel slightly comfortable. Not to mention that my arse was VERY sore from Sunday’s epic ride. We took more than one wrong turn along the way since this was a new route and I was not totally sure on my directions. It got dark while we were still out there and the rain increased as well. By the time we got back to the parking lot it was 9:15 and we had ridden 40 miles. We were soaking wet, tired and cold. My feet were so numb I could hardly get my regular shoes on, not to mention driving a stick shift with no feeling in your feet is a little scary. When I got home, I went to remove my bike from my roof rack and realized one side of my fork was not clamped in. This is the kind of thing that happens when you put the bike up in the dark and rain, real fast because you’re cold. I was ecstatic that it had not fallen off while on the highway!

2 comments:

Brian said...

I was riding today when I looked over at the sidewalk and there was a gray-moustached fellow on a highwheeler, riding and eating. He held up his styrofoam tub of food in my direction with the fork sticking out of it and told me, "you should eat."

True story.

Anonymous said...

Looks like someone has been busy over the last couple of weeks. You still owe me a run through Mark Twain National Forest. Don't think I'm going to forget it!