Today's Fabulous Ride

I felt so great on my ride today. It must have something to do with the fact I have spent so little time on my bike lately. Kind of like I tapered for today's ride.

Started out much later in the day than I wanted. Sleeping in felt so good. :) But it was ok since it was still a wee bit chilly out when we started. But there were also more people out, too.

As we started out I wondered if this ride was really a good idea. Saddle was really pinching. I've got to figure out what's up with that! But, five minutes down the road, and I didn't notice it anymore. I didn't notice any pain, really, the whole ride. Which was surprising considering the fact that I had to dose up on painkillers last night just to sleep. My hip and knee have been really bothering me the last couple of days. Unless I hold my knee straight, it gives me sharp pains. So even just sitting down is uncomfortable. I don't know whether the knee pain is from bumping it in Spinning class yesterday, or because my hips are out of alignment. I really should go to the chiropractor, but he's so stinkin' expensive! I've put a ban on the chiropractor unless I'm truely dying.

As we (Sling and I) get to the mouth of the canyon we see our club heading out for a club ride. Should I ride with them intead? Tempting, but I remember that they're going the opposite direction of what I had planned to do. I pass. I grumble about that decision the rest of the ride. I really should ride with my club every once in a while.

I ride up the canyon doing cadence intervals: 50 RPM/90 RPM. I can't find the 50 RPM today. It's too slow and easy. The 90 RPM doesn't feel so bad today. So by the time we turn off the canyon road and head up a steeper pitch, I decide that I'll try to hold the 90 RPM the rest of the way up. Some of the climbs were 11 percent grades, and I took them as fast as I could. I PBed this ride today! I can't imagine how much better I could have done, too if I had held 90 RPM the whole time! Trying to find 50 RPM really slowed me down. I've decided that I like climbing hills as fast as I can. It's painful and my breathing gets really labored, but I can get up the hill so much faster, so it's over sooner. Plus, once I settle into the fact that "this is the way it's gonna be," it's all good.

On our way back down, I decide to be funny. I can see I'm catching Sling, so I push it a little harder. I'm on his back wheel when I shout out, using my dark and scary voice, "I'm comin' to get ya!" Scared the poor guy to death. He thought some big man in a truck was trying to run him over, or something. He jumped and dropped back. I just laughed as I passed him, "Did I scare ya?" I didn't realize until later how badly I had scared him. And I just thought I was a fast descender today. I gotta stop doing that.

On the way home we took the road instead of the trail. It was too late, and there were way too many people on the trail by now. I don't enjoy dodging dogs, skateboarders, strollers, sketchy kids riding training wheels, and joggers. I like riding the road down even if it is a highway with lots of traffic and big trucks. It's faster, and I've learned to like speed. But it's also more littered. Sling got a flat on the way down. It ONLY took us 2 tubes and 3 cartridges to fix it. The first cartridge was mysteriously empty. The first tube we installed blew out when filling it with CO2. So we had to use another. And another cartridge.

We arrived home just in time for Sling to change and head out to meet some people for a mountain bike ride.

What a life!