Matinee

On the bike, you friggin' perverts. Today I got out for an almost two hours lunch ride. Twenty-eight degrees before work, f-that, but by 1 PM it was over fifty. I headed over to Quincy via Hillside and Chickatawbut, turned around and came back up. Just a few seconds under 8 minutes to get from the Furnace Brook Parkway to the overlook parking area. Not so great, as I know I've done under seven in the summertime. On to Big Blue.

I just checked this post from last year, which provides some details of my first access road ride of the season for the last few years. Looks like this year's beats the rest by a few weeks! Also in the notes, it says I weighed 80 kilos last year in late March. Wow. Now I'm 76.5 on a bad day. Up I went. The road is in good shape and nobody was up there. I used the granny all the way, and saved something the first time up, hitting the top in 6:15. There was a Smart Car parked up at the weather station too, first one I've seen in person.

I headed down and Freddy Fenders handled the descent nicely. The next time up I again used the granny, as 42x23 would have been a struggle. Shifting on this thing is not the best, and I ground them up a lot, using the 30x16, 17, 18, and 19. This time I held nothing back, and was rewarded with a 5:56. So we still have work to do, but my recovery was quick and after all, this was a lunch ride on a heavy bike with burly tires and wheels. Not to mention last night's 13 mile run (which did not go all that well, and was at a rather ugly 8+ minutes pace for the last few miles as I stumbled home in the dark) was not helping my legs any. Looks pretty good compared to last year, might even be favorable compared with 2006. We'll see in a few more weeks.

No lunch ride would be complete without a trip through the 'pan, even if it was just the very corner for a few hundred meters. I saw a few other riders out too, and got back to work just after 3 PM. Now I'm stuck here until 7:30... Thanks for reading.