Piney Woods Bike Ride

I went to East Texas last week. I contacted the Angelina Bike Club to see if they had any organized rides on Saturday. I was planning on joining them for a ride. It turns out that there were several of them that were planning on riding. At first, and I am not sure why, I was reluctant to go with them, even after I contacted them. Not sure if it was an apprehension about meeting new people, new route or possibly not being up to par with their abilities. All reasons are silly. Silly or not,, I went to bed on Friday evening hoping that the ride would get rained out. Saturday morning arrived and it was a beautiful day. Not too hot,, no rain and gorgeous blue skies.

I hooked up with the ABC guys on Saturday morning at Lufkin High School. They turned out to be a great group of guys. So,, any fears about that were quickly put aside. We planned on a 60 mile ride. So off we headed towards Zavalla Texas. The road was perfect,, it was a fairly new road so there were no potholes or rough spots to worry about. Once we warmed up,, they started picking the pace up. We had a great pace,, one that actually worried me because I was fearful that I could not sustain that pace for very long. I remembered what Maurice told me about being uncomfortable on the bike and to push myself. So,, that is what I did. It was a hard ride but man it was fun. At about mile 17, two of the riders had to turn around so it ended up with just three of us. We had a great pace line going and we rotated through the line, each taking a turn at pulling. We were cooking along,, through some beautiful landscapes,, covered in huge pine trees that stood out so amazingly. At the half way point, we had about 27 miles under our belt and the average speed was 19.8 MPH... as we headed back towards Austin, I though we would slow down a bit,, but we didn't. We kept hammering back to town. When it was all over, we covered 55 miles and 19.5 MPH average speed. That is an awesome pace for me!! I really enjoyed going that fast for that long. I was beat when we got back to town. I could tell that I pushed myself really hard.

Here is the best part,, after the ride,, I stopped by Smoothie King for a Smoothie (what else would you get at a Smoothie King?) and it was great. It really hit the spot. Simple pleasures.

Here we go again!

This is a long overdue post to the BLOG.  I have been AWOL for awhile.  First thing and main thing to mention is that I have signed up for another Ironman.  Ironman Arizona April 13th 2008.  I am actually looking forward to it,, although I cannot seem to get my ass in gear and start training again.  I have a long ways before I need to start training in earnest but in the meantime, I need to stay in shape.  Plus I have a triathlon per month scheduled from now until October. Last week was a good week for training.  I managed to get in some good runs and some biking.  It is funny but the months of being sedentary not only threw a monkey wrench into my fitness, it also messed up my rituals.  During the IM training,, everything had a place and time.  I knew where all my equipment was, I had everything strategically placed in either the garage or the Pathfinder.  I had my post-workout drinks prepared each day, I logged my workouts on Sundays, and did wash on Fridays.  Right now, I am all over the map.  Nothing is gelling yet.  I am not quite in the swing of things yet, so it is frustrating to me.  I do manage to arrive at the workouts with clothes,, not the right clothes but clothed none-the-less.

 

Last week, I did 2 hours of biking, 1 hour of swimming , 2 hours of running and two hours of core.  I missed all the log stuff due to being in Houston over the weekend.  I know,, not much of a log but it is a start.