I never really honestly thought I'd ever find myself zooming down Highland Street on my bike at 31 mph...on my aerobars....zipping through intersections with GREEN lights to boot! Got to do that today at the end of Mike's annual Labor Day ride. I was chasing Jason and another guy back to St. Vincent's Mall where we were parked after 46 miles of hills and other types of road conditions around Cross Lake. It was a fast-paced ride most of the time, the high point being about 12 miles in on South Lakeshore Drive...a curvy, rolling hill stretch of road....where I jumped from the pack at the end of a short uphill to chase down Jason and Lindsay who had gapped us a couple of miles earlier. As I chased I saw that Lindsay was starting to drop off Jason's wheel and I blew by her at 33 mph eventually catching Jason. Of course, with a powerhouse like him it's like catching a shark...now that I'm got him, what do I do with him? Basically it's a matter of just hanging on for dear life! Ian had bridged across with me...pretty damn alert of him, I should say on his behalf...and he had not been riding a lot recently. I let him get between Jason and me, then Jason started upping the pace a bit...Ian realized he couldn't hang on any longer and was trying to help me pull up behind Jason....only I wasn't able to close the gap! It was getting funny...Ian looking back and waving me through, and me just smiling and shrugging my shoulders at him. He finally pulled out and I gave it one last effort to grab the wheel. Finally able to do it when Jason eased back a bit. For the next 4-5 miles we team-time-trialed it away from the rest of the group, finding ourselves out there all by ourselves. Jason waited for me the two times I found myself falling off his wheel but mostly I hung on, going about 26-28 mph the whole way. It was tough but, as always, there's something fun about it all. The group caught up to us at a regrouping point and the rest of the ride was all about chasing, some funny moments, and just enjoying the company of a good group of riders.
In the first three days of September I have about 130 miles on the bike, all relatively short rides (the longest was the 46 miles today) concentrating on speed work for the time trials in Monroe and LaPlace the next two weekends. Sunday was a slow, easy spin day that still covered 44 miles. I think I could be sore tomorrow! I hope the last few weeks of effort on the bike will show itself on those TT's...I just want to stay above 25 mph on average without totally dying of exhaustion!
Jonnene had to work today but she got out early in the afternoon and went off to get in a session of pilates with a co-worker. I spent most of the afternoon continuing the demolition work in the kitchen, getting rid of the rest of the feaux brick fascade and seeing if I could match up the old cabinet hinges for replacement (not a lot of luck there...close but not as close as I'd like). I have a lot of small jobs to do in the kitchen and outdoors. All manly stuff, of course!
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