Any endeavor requires some sort of goal, and setting the appropriate goal is vital to feeling successful. The first bike race I ever entered my goal was simple; don't embarrass yourself. I exceeded my goal in that race. At the end of today's ride I told Amy what my average speed was. She responded by saying, "nothing embarrassing about that".
More of a snooty-sneaky ride today, as we kind of rode below radar. But most importantly the sun joined us on this ride, and was a welcomed companion. It didn't take long for the words to be spoken, "it's pretty through here". Not a lot of red any more, but still plenty of yellow, and the gold and browns were everywhere matching up exquisitely with harvestable, rolling fields of corn and soybeans. The blue sky dotted with grey and white clouds was a perfect accent to a perfectly beautiful ride. Even the Crow River was giving its all today and was full to over flowing, an unusual sight this year, but not too surprising after all the rain of the last few weeks.
Eliminate calories and enjoy the scenery were the mission statement for today's ride. Even Amy's broken rear derailleur cable didn't keep us from completing the mission. Within 5 miles of the break, we found a bike shop, which also sold jock straps, used hockey equipment, guns, bright orange hoodies, bmx bikes and, of course, beef jerky. These guys were really, really nice to us. They had a cable, and offered the use of their bike stand to replace the cable. They wished us a good ride, and I didn't even hear any dueling banjos as we rode away.
Back on course we took on some favorite rollers, with a mid-October effort, and then settled in for some more scenery intervals. We burned some lungs and quads on Christmas Lake hill, and after that did as much coasting as was possible. Rolled home nice and easy and quite content with the quality of today's saddle time. 80/18.3
1 comment:
Very nice miles, considering the weird weather during the week.
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