Training Groove

"I'm overdressed," I thought to myself. I was barely a mile from home and although I felt quite comfortable at the time, I knew that in an hour I'd be hot. That happens a lot this time of year when 55 degrees can feel cool one day and balmy the next. Better to be overdressed and on the bike than hiding under the covers waiting for Spring, though. I hadn't been paying attention to the weather forecasts, but if I had I'd have known that they were predicting highs in the upper 70s all the way until Friday when the next little cool front is supposed to arrive. Even then I don't think we'll see anything you could really call "cold" for at least a week.

So jumping into the long levee ride this morning was fairly painless, although I sure felt like I'd been off the bike for more than a week. I probably should have done more work on the way out, but once when I dropped back I ended up behind Rob who was riding his PowerCranks and letting people get back in ahead of him. I convinced myself that it would be good to ease myself back into the training groove by staying in the draft for a while. It was a lie, of course, but it's easy to rationalize about those sorts of things in November. Way down at the turnaround the group broke out in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" for Big Richard. With a little bit of a headwind on the way back my effort level gradually increased from "blatant wheelsucking" to "not sucking too badly," and so by the end I was starting to feel like I was back in the groove.

I've got a to-do list right now that's about a mile long. You know, the kind of list that's so overwhelming that it elicits occupational paralysis. Where to start? I figured I'd go in order of priority, so naturally a blog update went up to the top of the list. Oh, at the conference I got a discount card for 53x11 coffee (one of USAC's Affinity Partners), so on a whim I decided to order a couple of bags. I like their attitude. You should check out their video. My gourmet coffee review will follow once the post office delivers, although I may have to wait a few days until it gets really cold because coffee really doesn't taste right to me until winter. My choices? The Chain Breaker and The Big Ring. Gotta love it.