Country Roads

Today's game plan was a long bike ride with my yoga teacher's husband who does century rides. He showed up right on time at 12:30 ready to head out for a 40 mile ride. We took off straight from my house. I was a little nervous about this because I like riding on nice wide shoulders and today we would be going through our downtown (two lanes of traffic with a center turn lane and no shoulders) out to the country roads (no shoulders at all).

When we hit downtown, I let him lead and just stayed right behind him. Cars passed, but the lane was wide enough that I felt ok. Once we got to the country roads there were fewer cars, but still more than I expected. It didn't take me long to get use to the cars coming by. I'm still more comfortable on shoulders but it was fine. I wouldn't do it by myself, but with him it was good.

We road all along the countryside. I've lived here most of my life and we went on roads I've never been on before. Around mile 20 we stopped for a few minutes at the little country store of the town we were in to refill water bottles, take a gu, and stretch a little. It felt good to stretch. Then we took off for the last 20. More country roads. I had no idea where I was. I did ok until about mile 30 and then I noticed that I was really slowing down. Especially on the hills. But I was getting it done. My back didn't hurt as much today, but I'm still not use to sitting on the seat for that long. My legs and lungs were fine. I joked that I was just going to put my bike on the trainer and just sit on it for 4 or 5 hours just to get use to sitting on the bike for that long. It definitely takes some getting use to.

As I rolled back onto my street I looked at my bike computer. It said 42.17 miles, so that's what is going on the books. 14 more to hit the 56 I'll be doing on race day. Race day is a little less than 3 months away, so hopefully I can get in a few more long rides of 50-60 miles. Doing 40 today really helped. I may not be the fastest person out there, but I'm feeling better about being able to get it done.

On a side note, my son's soccer team qualified for the 3v3 regionals from the tournament they were in this weekend. They've already qualified for regionals from another tournament, but they are two different regionals and will be played in different locations and on different weekends. I like the one they qualified for today. If they place at regionals and qualify for nationals, they'll get to go to Orlando for that and play at Disney's Wide World of Sports. I love Disneyworld, so I'm all about having a reason to go. That's why I've done the Disney marathon the past two years and I'll be doing it again in January! Let's hope they qualify.

My daughter and I went shopping after my bike ride to get her some "collared" shirts. She's taking a junior golf clinic next week and needs to "dress like a golfer". That should be interesting.

As for Harry Potter, well I'm only on chapter 5. I don't seem to be getting a lot read. Hopefully I'll read some more tonight.