Easy Day Made Hard

Had a nice time at the Twelfth Night party that one of the neighbors (actually a few of them) threw last night, and since it was a "school night" I tried not to go overboard on the wine. I wish I could say the same for the artichoke and spinach dip, finger sandwiches, and King Cake. Even so, I blew off some work I had planned on doing and hit the sack before midnight.

A cold front came through yesterday evening, finally, and dropped the temperature back into the range of "seasonal." It wasn't strong enough to get cold, but regardless, the mid-50s temperature this morning felt refreshing until I met face-to-face with the wind. I also noted, as I rode out to the levee, that my legs were definitely sore. A smart person would have gone off for an easy solo ride somewhere that was protected from the wind. I, however, went to the levee where a small group of other morning lemmings was assembled for the Wednesday ride. By the time we had gotten to the Country Club where we stopped to help a couple of triathletes who had used up all their CO2 on a leaky tube, we were down to just four riders. The rest had turned back for various apparently legitimate reasons.

Jay was doing most of the pulling while I was trying to keep from exacerbating the damage I'd already done to my legs. It was pretty much impossible, though, and what should have been for me a recovery ride ended up feeling pretty hard. With a nice little tailwind on the way back, Jay pulled John, Taylor and me for what must have been six or seven miles before finally pulling off. The whole ride I was trying to figure out how I'd gotten all the way to Wednesday with such sore legs. Granted, the advancing years has extended my recovery period, but I guess I just didn't think I'd pushed myself so hard last weekend that I could still be feeling the effects. Oh well. I guess that's just one more time I've made the classic mistake of going so hard one day that I end up screwing up my training for the next three. The real down side at this time of year, though, is that it'll take even longer to get rid of those five pounds of stubborn fat currently insulating my gut. Damn, I may have to resort to some extra evening workouts or (*shudder*) cut down on the caloric intake. There's still one frosted brownie in the 'fridge, ice cream in the freezer, and cookies scattered all about. This could take a while.....