Saturday I slept in. My shoulder kept waking me up, I knew it was going to be a chilly morning, so I slept in. It was almost 8 before I rose to make my oatmeal. I fixed my first coffee in a week. Odd, I didn't finish the 2nd cup. The first hit the spot, but oh well.
I had a few things to take care of and needed to get 1.5 hour ride too. Finally, about noon I jumped in the car and drove to a few addresses to see the outside of some apartments. Not sure what to do. Maybe I'll just sign another year lease. Need to read it again before I decide. By the time I got home, it was almost 2 and the temps were warming to almost 50. Jumped on the bike and rode the parks, endurance and nothing difficult. I focussed on trying to stay relaxed, especially through the upper body. The left shoulder makes it so easy to put more pressure on the right and then my neck gets tight - domino effect. It was a good ride. Plans to go to a movie with a friend fell through. So after a long hot soak, I fixed dinner, did laundry, packed my gear and had a couple of beers. EXCITING stuff LOL
This morning I joined three buddies for a ride across a couple of knobs in southern Indiana. It was 23 miles to our destination which was the Mad Dog Prologue Time Trial. We logged a little more than 54 miles total. It was 26F when we started and I had stressed over what to wear, knowing it was to warm up to 50s by the end of the ride. The first few miles my thumbs went numb. However, once we climbed the first knob everything was alive and well and warm. Circulation tends to do that. The first time I stood in the pedals I had to sit back down after a very few seconds. That pulled too much on my left shoulder. Riding the steepest/longest knob of the day, Blunk Knob took me off the bike twice. Both times were just pulling up in the handle bars and I was probably going 4mph, maybe! I wonder how slow you can go up a hill and not fall over. I really don't want to find out, at least not on pavement. We arrived @ the TT and had 15-20 minutes to wait before starting. I wasn't going to do it, but one of my buds said just ride it and not worry about race or time. My legs were cold and so I just took off for a leisurely ride, until Tim passed me. Then I started thinking about all the others that would pass me. Eh, I really don't like that. So I started picking it up and pushed after the first 1.5 miles. There were some rollers and a couple of good ones before the last downhill to the finish. I stood a few times and kept changing the gears to find a sweet spot. Darn headwind was no fun. But only one other rider passed me. By the time we headed home I was whooped. My shoulder was very fatigued and halfway back was starting to hurt. I felt bad, as I was holding everyone back. I should've written down the route so I could've sent them on their way. All the way back I kept telling myself; relax, elbows in, shoulders down, spin, spin, spin. And everytime I lost a wheel I just cursed myself. It's so damned difficult to bridge and grab back on. Telling myself to stop being a big baby, that I can do this, just find the right gear and spin. It's a good thing I have plenty of time to get ready, because I won't be competitve for the first race this weekend if I race. Shoulder has to improve a lot. May just wait til the 20th.
Got home and was very tired so took a 30 minute nap. Then went and washed the car. I should've had a good dinner, but caved and fixed a frozen pizza. I miss Socks, the jacuzzi tub with jets, real face-to-face conversations with people among a few other things, too. Oh well, this is life.
Thank goodness, the weather was great and I got to spend a few hours outdoors with friends on my bike this weekend!
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