Recovery Riding

I was glad it was Friday. Yesterday's afternoon rain had kept the temperatures down just a bit, and although the water in Lake Pontchartrain is now at a toasty 84F, the morning air felt comfortable -- at least for the first half hour or so. The small Friday group assembled atop the levee rolled right on time, and I was looking forward to an easy recovery ride, mainly because I felt like I needed -- you guessed it -- recovery. The pace did indeed stay fairly easy, although for much of the way back it nudged up to 22 or 23. Even that felt a little hard to my tired legs, leading me to take shorter pulls and generally shift into conservation mode. I spend much of the ride chatting alongside Donald except when the increased pace would force me to seek a little shelter. I am hoping to get in a couple of longer rides over the weekend, and I'd rather not start out with legs of lead.

I expect I'll go do the Giro Ride on Saturday, which will be eight weeks since the collarbone snapped in half. Maybe I'll try and make the northshore ride on Sunday if things work out. Although my current fitness level is clearly below normal for this time of year, I guess it could be worse. I don't think I've done a ride of over 45 miles in two months, but hey, no point waiting at this point.

Next week will be bad, riding-wise. We'll be making a long drive to Denver (well, actually Englewood) for a wedding and although I'll certainly throw the bike in the station wagon there are no guarantees as to when, where, or for how long I'll be able to ride it. Hopefully I'll find a way to work in a few rides.