Memorial Day was nice. Put the flag in the window (this flag has actually flown over the US Capital!) to show my patriotism and wore my "flag" socks during the morning's bike ride.

After doing hill repeats on Sunday, I wasn't sure how my legs would feel on Monday, even for an "easy" ride. Every year we have these unofficial rides on Memorial Day and Labor Day, where we cover about 45 miles doing a loop around Cross Lake. It can be fast or slow, but it's a good way to loosen your legs if you've had a hard weekend. And I'd had a hard weekend! After that 76-mile speed-fest on Saturday I thought I'd be crippled up for a while but the gams recovered fairly well. Anyway, we had about 35 people show up, including a few triathletes and the fast guys on Team LaS'port. My intent was to ride with Jonnene the whole way and, as it turned out, she was up to the task of getting the distance up and done. The first 15 miles were pretty quick, especially as we got out of town toward the lake. The group started to break up then we would all regroup at the Longwood Store about 23 miles into the ride. Then it was on to Blanchard and some of the more challenging hills out there. One rider slipped off the edge of a raised portion of the asphalt road and took a tumble...he got a little scratched up but he's okay. Another had a flat. Generally speaking, my legs did okay but I could feel the soreness in the quads. I did a few hard efforts but generally stayed in the pack, and made no effort to go with the fast boys when they took off.

We got a new TV for my grandma yesterday. Well, it's not actually new and my step-dad actually got it. My grandmother has been needing a new set for a couple of weeks now since her old one lost its infrared-remote-control "eye" where she had to get up to change volume and turn the TV off/on. At 93 she doesn't need to be doing all that (she's earned her right to have a properly working TV with remote). I started to collect funds from relatives so we could get her a new set until Jim met up with a guy who had just gotten himself a new flat-screen and gave his old set to Jim when he told the guy about his mother-in-law's situation. So it all worked out for the best. The Good Lord always answers prayers though we are often deaf and blind to the answers...sometimes the answers are pretty darn obvious! We wanted to get her a new TV and suddenly one appears out of nowhere and free to boot! Ooooh, yeeaahhhh.

I spent most of last night working on a job that I thought had to be ready this morning. Got about 4 hours of sleep, going to bed at 1 am and waking up at 5 to finish it up. Then I got an email from the client saying to hold off for the meeting and we'll get together on Friday! Well, I would have liked to have known that last night! But the good thing is that the work is done to date and I don't have to worry about it for a while. Now I have to get some other things done....and get caught up on the sleep!

My first road race since September is this weekend down in Alexandria. I'm not expecting great things but I'm a little amped for it. Fortunately it's 44 miles so I should be able to handle that okay, but us Masters 45+ are being grouped in with the Masters 35+. Depending on who shows up, that could be good or bad. Odds are the pace will ramp up a bit but I think I can deal with that as long as the hills aren't too bad. It'll be good prep work for the district road races in Natchez the next weekend.