Riding with the Fast Boys

Today I decided to join the Harpeth Bike Club for their Cool Springs ride. I wasn't able to ride my 1:50 with 36-min tempo ride earlier, so this was the next best option. Well, I'd pretty much planned to go anyway since I needed to get out an ride with people who would push me. Valerie and Lee were there, and we were the only 3 females (except that we found out afterward that Jonell had ridden too)—that only meant that we had to prove ourselves with the boys! Lee took on that role and rocked the entire ride, making it up every hill first. Valerie was amazing too, climbing super well and taking a pull or two at the front. I took a few short pulls and hung on.

This is anything but a flat course. Gosey Hill, around mile 11, is brutal because it's just a consistent climb leading up to it and then a tough grade to finish on. It's rewarding, though, because there's a great, long downhill on the other side (with a stop sign, unfortunately). It didn't take long for the break to happen. Lee had just warned me that it was about to get real fast when her husband and a few others took off. It was uphill, and I couldn't jump on fast enough. Three ended up off, and the rest of us got pretty spread out. We worked hard but couldn't catch them. However, we could see them in front of us the entire time. Finally we caught them, likely because they were stopped for traffic at a stop sign. David said later tho that this was probably the hardest he's ridden in a while, so that was very encouraging. We might not have caught them had they not had to stop, but neither did we ever lose them; we were riding hard the entire time!

One guy almost went down but somehow stayed up and didn't cause anyone else to fall, though I did hit his wheel while he was sliding. A couple of the other guys who we know ride a lot were kinda sketchy last night—not sure what that was all about, but we all ended in one piece and I was glad!

• 1:12 total time, 24.8 miles, 21 mph avg (38.6 max), 1,560 cal, 165 HR (193 max)

I also did a few isos throughout the day (and went to CSY before the ride), doing at least 5 on, 5 off thru 20 (sometimes 30, sometimes 40) for wall squat, squat, lunge, glute ham, curl, and push up. Not the thru 60 that was on the list, but there's always next time to add those additional 3 minutes to each exercise (I am having trouble finding the time for everything this week).