Back on the Asphalt

By Friday the head cold had subsided a bit and a nice morning spin on the levee convinced me it was safe to get back on the asphalt. So Saturday morning I headed out as usual for the Giro Ride. It was a surprisingly small group - maybe 35 or so - and a I noticed a few of the regulars were missing. Since I was still a little tentative about asking too much from my lungs, I was being careful to keep my nose out of the wind, and under the circumstances, the relatively subdued pace suited me perfectly. I guess perhaps this was the first hint of the impending end of the racing season. Or perhaps it was that a number of people were planning on long Sunday rides. In my case, I was looking forward to a planned 80 mile LSD ride on the northshore, mainly to get us more or less prepared for the next week's trip to the Six-Gap Century.

I was up early on Sunday morning mapping out an extra 15-mile loop to turn our usual 65-mile route into an 80-mile one. Of course, I should have done that the night before, but the neighbor came over for dinner, and after a few glasses of wine it started to seem perfectly feasible that I could do it at 6 a.m. Nonetheless, I made it over to Puccino's in time to meet Mario and Mignon for the drive across the lake. By 8 am we'd added Steve, Pat and Jordan to make a nicely balanced 6-rider group. The idea for the day was to keep the pace smooth and steady, so Steve and I sat at the front of the short double-paceline for the first ten miles before pulling over the next pair. Other than a nagging sinus headache, I was feeling pretty good today even though I somehow managed to ride right off the edge of the road twice. I was having a bit of a balance problem when I'd move my head too quickly, so I guess that might have had something to do with it.

I had mapped out a short loop up around Pine, LA in order to add the necessary miles to our ride, and although I'd ridden those roads a few times in the past, I wasn't really very familiar with all of the intersections. Since practically none of the roads up there have signs, I managed to miss one of the turns, so we got a couple of extra "bonus miles." By the time we were back on the regular part of the route, it was starting to get pretty warm and we were starting to fight a bit of a headwind. So despite our moderate speed, those last thirty miles got gradually harder and harder. I think we were all pretty well toasted by the time we got back to the car with 84 miles for the day. Even so, I was glad that the only after-effects of my cold from earlier in the week was a fairly mild sinus headache and a couple of days off the bike.