Second Ride….
After work last night, the weather was warm and the wind was lighter so I took off for another ride. This one looped over the Kinser Bridge with the intention of going out to Mentor and looping up FR 183. Unfortunately, I didn’t count on the new “Lake Rogersville” between Kinser and Mentor and I couldn’t see it until I had climbed out of the first valley to the hill overlooking the 2nd. I swear that water was probably 10 feet deep on the road, and maybe 100-150 yards across. That area is a natural bowl, and I guess the water table is just so high the flood waters won’t go down.
After backtracking, then going east to the next road, I finally hit 183 and turned east again. The wind was from the southwest, and because it was somewhat at my back I cranked the front derailleur up to the big chain ring and pushed fairly hard out to Rogersville. On the way, I started seeing some of the riders from Springbike’s Tuesday ride getting close to finishing (they are starting at 5:30). This was really the first time I’ve tried to push it for any distance this year, and it felt surprisingly good.
By the time I got out to Rogersville and came directly home past the high school, I was starting to feel pretty whipped, but it was a good feeling. I feeling of accomplishment and contentment. You know what I mean?
I ended up with 25 strong miles for this ride, and 35 for the day.
This morning’s workout was a cardio, and it didn’t take long to figure out that my legs were toast. I pushed through it, but after 30 minutes on the eliptical like machine, 20 minutes climbing stairs and running a mile, I am glad that I didn’t bring my bike for a lunch ride. I’ve found a yoga/abbs workout that I’m gonna try at lunch instead.
I was looking back at last year’s journal, and it looks like I’m at least two weeks ahead of my mileage from last winter, but that’s not necessarily an accomplishment since I was still healing from the broken collar bone and didn’t start riding until a little later. I tell myself that those things don’t matter, but I find that it’s good motivation to use some benchmark to measure your progress against. I guess that means I can say “I’m doing more than that crippled guy last year”!
God bless…
TW
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