Ahhhhh!

Just what the doctor ordered! After yet another stress filled day at work (not due to work, but rather insecurity for the future), I met up with my friend Scott's house for a ride. As you may have read, I was thinking of wrecking our legs with hill repeats. Thank goodness Scott wasn't really looking for that! We wound up doing a really relaxing 20+ mile ride out into some country roads and over some hills. I switched my time between spinning and mashing, so I could try and hit several aspects of muscle work. I also looked hard at spinning circles. If you don't understand what that is, I'd be happy to explain. It deals with using the front and back muscles of your leg to more efficiently spin the cranks, versus using quads to mash the pedals.

When I first hopped on my road bike, I felt like I was on a mountain bike or something. The seat was way back and farther down than I was used to, and the body position just felt weird. I left it in low gear and just spun around for a while on the way to Scott's. It all started to come back to me, and how this felt sooo much more comfortable going up hills and cornering. The shifting was really smooth compared to my tri bike, maybe due to 9sp tri versus 10sp road, and I played around with some sprinting up a particularly steep hill near me, on Holland Road. Wow, I miss riding my road bike.

Anyway, we shot out and rode two-abreast when possible, chatting about work and life, inconsiderate drivers, riding Paris Mountain soon, and how great my newly-shaved legs look. :-) Seriously, they rock! Well, I did it for swim hydrodynamics and potential roadrash if I crash, but I digress. A great ride, at a smooth pace, just enjoying the roads. Only one jackhole got close to us, and both of us told him he was number one in our books, if you catch my drift. My bike computer showed 26.12 miles at an average pace of 16.3 mph. No hammering, just a great ride. Well, Scott got an unfortunate calf cramp up one hill, just about at the halfway point, so we made sure to make concession for that and monitor it. Must have cramped up badly, because it was still tender later on. Unless he was just sandbagging...

But I was glad to have a nice tapering exercise day. Even took a nice nap at lunch while my wife was swimming. I feel bad until I think about Mendy and Grace hanging out while I'm working my butt off to hold onto 3rd place in the SCTS standings. Scott and Robin may even come out and cheer me on at the race! Yay, pressure! Ah, it will be a fun race at any rate. And I'm gonna ROCK!

And now back to your interesting and meaningful life...