Update on Life

So this month has been crazy with having to go to St. Charles for work and then Seattle for fun. I haven't had too many weekends for riding, so this weekend I tried to cram in a lot of miles.

Yesterday was Head for the Hills in Chappel Hill. I forgot how hard this route was. 63 miles and tons of hills and 90 degree weather was crazy. The morning felt great with a little bit of tail wind and fresh legs, but the last 20 miles were horrible. Thanks to Arnel for sticking close by and not moving too fast to chase. It was good motivation to try and stick with him. Plus it was less boring to have someone to talk to. Finished in like 4 hrs and 35 mins.

Today was just a free Bike World ride. Very little signs and mostly on our own for directions. We had a map and a group of about 9 so it was fun. I didn't really stick around too many of the others close enough to talk with. Today was a fast day. Weather stuck below 70 all day and we stayed under cloud cover, so we went 15-20 the whole day. Finished 61 miles in just under 4 hours. Fastest 60 I've ever done. Felt great. I'm glad I went today. It saved my weekend.

ConocoPhillips Training Ride 11 - New Waverly

Today drove out to New Waverly with Leigh for CP ride 11. I dunno but this weekend has been a really sluggish one for me. I didn't really do anything yesterday except teach Phillip how to clip in and clip out. Then this morning I dunno but my head just didn't feel like it was into the ride. I tried to keep up my speed on ups and downs, but that really wore me out fast. After 25 miles I lost my groove. I was tired, and probably under-fueled. erg. Still managed 51 miles ~14.6 mph.

Now I feel really restless and anxious for some reason. I feel like I need a nice relaxing yoga session. Hopefully I can sleep tonight.

ConocoPhillips Training Ride 10 - Chappell Hill

Hard. Today's training ride was hard. The first 20 miles were great, rolling hills, I was feeling good conquering them and then having fun descending. There was a big crowd. Roads were typically full of riders. I did get to see Ashley which was cool.

I think I used up too much energy at the beginning tho cause the last ten miles were hard. We had to fight the wind going uphill and then fight again downhill to gain momentum. It was a pretty stead uphill battle towards the end. Not many chances to gain momentum and fly up the hill. Erg. Avg 13mph. 44 miles.

At one point my pedal just unscrewed from my crank. What!? That was really weird and I couldn't get it off my shoe, so the SAG wagon guy had to help me screw it back in while the pedal was still attached to my foot. haha.


That was fun.

Teresa kept up really well. I was impressed today. She was never more than 5 mins behind me.

I tried to remember to take more pictures today. Here's one.


There were also lots of baby bluebonnets out there, but I didn't stop to get that picture. Next time.

Afterward I went home ate and passed out for 3 hrs. About to pass out again soon. Running and riding tomorrow. Probably will be sore tomorrow. I'll let you know, this will be the first ride where I came out sore on the other side.

Peace.

ConocoPhillips Training Ride 9 - Cat Spring

So this ride was scheduled for Cat Springs, which was a little closer than the past two rides. I was getting excited cause I could do rides back to back this weekend. I meet up Teresa, we carpool over to Cat Springs, get our bikes ready and then Steve Moskowitz tells us that the storm is coming fast and that there's lightning.

So Steve canceled the ride. raWr. boo rain.

ConocoPhillips Training Ride 8 - Fayetteville

Today was quite the day. I pulled a stupid and went drinking, got home around 3:30am, and then had to get up at 5am to meet Leigh and Dan for our carpool to Fayetteville. Needless to say, I was hungover and felt like crap for the first 20 miles of the ride. Once I got plenty of fluids and food in my belly, I felt much better and hauled it to the end. The last 10 miles had plenty of long downhills and TAILWIND! Yay. I was holding 18/19mph pretty easily with the tail wind. Overall avg was 14.7 mph for 42miles.

BTW Fayetteville was beautiful. So glad I signed up for these rides. You guys are missing out.

ConocoPhillips Training Ride 7 - Columbus

The hill isn't in the way. It is the way.

So today was another 5 am wake up to go ride. It was our first taste of rolling hills, and I had one of the best rides of my life. At first I was worried I wouldn't be able to sustain 50 miles of hills, but they were actually a great change to all the flat, windy terrain we've been seeing. There was still wind, but it came in pockets since we sometimes had trees to block us. The hills weren't too bad; I stayed in my big chain ring for most of the ride and tried to keep a strong pace. Total time 4.5 hrs - 50 miles. Total time on bike ~3.75 hrs. Bike computer said 13.6 mph avg. Pretty good. I feel better that I know I've improved since last yr. I was probably averaging 10 mph on rides about this time last yr. The scenery was great. Calming, clear, fresh.

Made a new friend, Leigh to carpool with. Dan came this time, so it was nice to have people to pass the time with. Hung out with Theresa and John a little more. Fixed a flat. Drove really far. haha. Ate a lot of chex mix.

Got home and was pretty beat, ate chili, tried to sleep, but was having a hard time. When I finally fell asleep I would wake up and feel crappy, roll over and try to sleep again. This continued for 2 hrs until I just got up. Felt like I had a headache...probably from dehydration. I don't like to drink a lot on rides. So chugged down lots of water and tried to feel better. Food helped.

Pretty tired now, still have a headache...would I be lame if I went to bed right now?

Don't answer that.