Group Ride

Today continued my trend of not getting everything done, and that is a trend I don't like. The girls left this morning, and as much as I liked having them here, I like having a quiet house, too. Because of their departure, I wasn't able to swim this morning, so I'd planned to do it at lunch. However, we had to get a bunch of stuff done at work that's now even more time-sensitive since I'll be gone Friday and all next week, so that wasn't happening. Then I left late, had just enough time to eat a little, vacuum, start a load of laundry, and load up my bike for the Cool Springs ride that I am glad wasn't rained out.

This was maybe my second group ride all season. I got dropped on the second hill after Carothers (17 minutes in) but tried to catch the group since I could see them the entire time. I passed two guys who I was hoping would help me, but neither of them would pull and thus neither stayed with me. If I'm not with a group on Gosey Hill I go up it slowly, and I wasn't with a group (although I could still see them and the few stragglers behind them). Therefore, I turned off for the 22-mile route.

As soon as I turned I saw Jay and Marsha and worked as hard as I could to catch them. I wasn't making up much ground, but I wasn't losing any ground, so I kept working hard. After a few miles I realized that Les was with them too, and I finally started making up a little ground. They came to a stop sign and had to wait for traffic, and just after that I finally caught them. We went a different route than we should have (they missed the turn at N. Chapel Road and I knew it, but I didn't want to be riding by myself without my cell phone, plus I liked having a group in front of me that I had to catch. We ended up doing 21.8 miles in 1:06 with a 19.6mph average and a 38.5 max speed.

I got a little workout from Will afterward (which I'll have to do tomorrow) and then headed home for a quick supper, more laundry, and bed (where I'm off to now!). The good news for the night is that Marsha said the Wednesday night crits will likely happen. Woohoo! Now I'll get a real chance to wear my new kit.