New Tires

Saturday and Sunday turned out to be decent days. However, both started out cold, which changed my riding plans on Saturday. Instead of meeting Shelly and Val at the Y, I got up early and rode for 1:30 on the trainer. I had hoped for 2 hours but still wanted to meet them to say hi, so I did a shorter pyramid than a couple weeks ago. Today: 10-minute warm up, 5-minute tempo, 5-minute recovery, 10-minute tempo, 5-minute recovery, 15-minute tempo, 5-minute recovery, 10-minute tempo, 5-minute recovery, 5-minute tempo, 15-minute cool down for 90 solid minutes of riding. Then I headed to the MFY parking lot to chat for a few minutes and then inside for 60 minutes on the step mill and a few minutes of lifting (real lifting, like on the machines, not isos like normal). I can’t run and still ride well, but I want to stay in good running shape, and the step mill doesn’t seem to be affecting my legs like the treadmill or pavement. I haven’t really tested my legs to see whether they’re in running shape, but I certainly feel like I’m getting a good workout in on the step mill.

After all that and some research on the computer, I went to Discount Tire to get new tires for my car. They took care of me well enough last time I needed new tires, and today was the same. They had the tires I wanted, they got my car into the garage pretty quickly, they let me watch the whole then, and I was in and out in about an hour.

No tires...

And they're back on and almost done

Church later included a good message about the difference between religion (your basic good works) and the gospel (God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice and my obedience). Bill summed it up by saying essentially that with religion, “I obey, therefore I am accepted”; whereas with the gospel, “I am accepted, therefore I obey.” We really can’t ever do enough to actually earn acceptance because we are inherently sinners, but Jesus took away that shame and our deserved death penalty so that we can be loved and accepted—in thankfulness and love for Him, I obey.

I had a movie to watch then, Forever Strong. It’s about rugby and a rugby coach who takes boys and trains them to be good teammates and good men. I’d highly recommend it, and I know slightly more about rugby now than I did yesterday :-)

Sunday was another chilly morning and I’d planned to spend a little time training before our team ride, but I didn’t get out of the house early enough and instead got breakfast from Kroger (complementary brunch on Sunday mornings!) and then went to Todd’s studio. Todd, Val, Anna, Parri, Lee, a possible new recruit Jess, and I (with Shelly meeting us on the road) headed out to Metro Center for fantastic teamwork practice and sprint work and then out to Titans Stadium for tough cornering work. Our first race of the season is next Sunday, and we all need work on taking fast tight turns with other people around. A course that we’ll be racing on is the best place to practice, and practicing with people we know and trust makes it much easier to begin to feel comfortable at a fast pace in a slightly dangerous situation.

Lots of back and forth and around and around

The day ended up being beautiful, perfect for a team ride, and I thought perfect for a hike. Sadly, everyone else in Davidson and Williamson counties thought the same thing about the hike. I stopped at Radnor Lake on my way home from downtown hoping to get a parking spot, but there were 5 cars in front of me and no one was moving—everyone at the park wanted to stay at the park! Instead I walked around a parking lot in Brentwood, staying in the sun, for a few minutes and headed home. It’s just not the same.