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I did something yesterday that Pinky says is out of character for me. I got honked at while I was climbing a hill. As I looked up I could see the guy was looking in his rear view mirror so I gave him the bird.I felt satisfied.
Like I've already told a few people, it was still in the 90's when I rode last night at 7 pm. I went for a short ride, but only because my route didn't work out quite like I thought it would. I ended up only riding for 40 minutes but it was a good 40. Today I'm doing the BCM and I'm going to try it like I did last week staying in my endurance range. We'll see if my time's changed at all.Forgot to mention that Pinky's run-ins with unfriendly types has stalled at two. Saturday, a guy in a Corvette honked at us and when Pinky politely asked him not to do that he said, "F*** you! Get on the sidewalk!" He drove off before Pinky could tell him that was illegal but not before Pinky returned the obscenity.The second guy was a red neck in a pick-up truck who apparently cut Pinky off (funny how these incidents seem to happen when I'm on the ride but before I really get to the scene). Pinky asked him to be careful because he could have hit one of us (which I did hear him say politely). As I rolled up I heard Pinky say, "It's illegal." And then the conversation ended the same as the other, with the generous exchange of appropriate salutations.Pinky, fighting for the rights of cyclists everywhere.
A friend forwarded this to me. Check it out.
Today is a much needed rest day but yesterday was brilliant.We rode about 22 miles from our house to Decatur and back. I've figured out that Pinky goes out too hard (he says he can't go any slower) but then halfway through the ride, when I'm hitting my peak, he's beat. So in the center of Decatur I was about to hit my stride on the long straight road when Pinky decided we need a shortcut to get home to avoid a hill so he cut into a neighborhood.This decision led to about a half a dozen more hills because we got lost in it. Finally emerging onto a main road, we were back on course for home. About 2 miles from the house Pinky got a flat, but because he told me to go ahead of him, I rode for a long time before realizing he was yelling at me to stop. I sprinted home (ok, not really a full sprint) and got the car.We had to go to two shops before we found someone to fix Big Red's busted sew-up tire. We also saw Big Red's potential successor, a very nice Cannondale. Hmmm.
Is it possible? Could it have happened so quickly? Have I really become Pinky's domestique? Yes, it's official: after a week of solid riding Pinky is faster, stronger, and a faster climber than I am. But I did take him on a sprint over one small climb today. And then he got me right back on the very next one. This morning we rode out Chamblee-Tucker which was the greatest - it must have been at least a couple of miles without a traffic light. It was nice to get a rhythm going. We had about 4 small climbs on this ride, not including the dreaded neighborhood hills. What we thought was going to be pretty tough ended up being okay and the last climb proved to be the toughest. And then of course the two last ones to actually get to the driveway. He beat me into the driveway and then cheered me on - I needed it for that nasty little one.For me this was a little harder ride since I was trying to go at Pinky's pace. I spent the entire hour and four minutes over 168 bpm (max at 194, the driveway of course). But I still felt good when we got home. So far this is the best workout I've had.I've logged 73.79 miles this week, and I'll definitely make my goal of 100 miles before next Friday, probably by Tuesday. Tomorrow we're planning to ride to Decatur and back, about 23 miles. Should be a good ride, no surprising hills that I can think of. Maybe I need to adjust my goal??Also tried out our homemade energy bars this morning. I'm pretty impressed actually - they're tasty!
Pinky rode the BCM this morning in 1:08:00. Pinky puked. He says it's because he drank too much water too fast. Uh huh. Is puking kind of like crashing: it's not a question IF it's going to happen, but more a matter of when?
As per Papa's suggestion, I went for a "longish" ride today, but not before some thunder delayed my departure. Pinky told me I was being a wuss and to get out there, so I did.
I rode our self-named 15-mile BCM loop (Brockett-Cooledge-McClendon) and my goal was to stay in my "endurance zone," which I figured out (through many online calculations and Papa's own estimate) to be 130-145. I set my upper limit on the heart monitor to 155 since this was my first time and I wasn't sure if I was going to make the thing explode or not if I went over.
It was so damn hard to stay in that zone! I rode so slowly, covering the 15 miles in 1:25:00. Ouch. I felt like I was crawling at times. Am I doing something wrong or am I just that out of shape that any effort makes my heart rate skyrocket? I guess the good thing is that I rode for an hour plus.
I also tackled something that I've been afraid of for a long time. The route had me come back into the neighborhood on the side that Pinky and I have been avoiding like the plague. An immediate hill, followed by a steep descent and immediate turn onto the mother of all hills - our street. The first hill in was a piece of cake, I didn't set the monitor off until I reached the top. But our street was another story - I had that thing screaming at me almost from the get-go. I was cruising along at first, right after the turn, and then not two seconds later I thought I was peddling through cement. I dropped into my babiest of all gears and after what Pinky thinks is 30 seconds (really, it seemed much longer) I finally get to our driveway.
You'd think it would be over, but no, our driveway is its own separate climb from hell. I could hardly peddle - I actually thought might stall and fall over.
Note to self: I would have been better off summiting the street and hitting the driveway on the return descent.
My father will say that I've reached the pinnacle of Geekdom with the creation of a blog. With Pinky and I starting to ride our bicycles more I wanted to be able to document the pain and suffering we're going through to prepare for the yet-to-be-titled riding challenge in October.
I also remember telling my Dad at some point that I didn't want to work anymore and that I wanted to write. He suggested that writing be my vocation instead of a career. So here we are. I'm vocating.
Today my plan is to go for a 45 minute endurance ride. I'll have to guess at what my "endurance" is since I don't have a heart monitor yet. But I gather from my reading that it's riding at 65% of my max heart rate. And apparently, we need to have goals also.
Pinky's goal for the end of the August: ride 360 miles.
My goal for the end of the August: ride more than Pinky.
Seeing how he rides early in the day and myself late I think this shouldn't be too hard, unless he falsifies his data. And he would so that he could outride me. We'll have to see how this pans out.
