Easy like Sunday morning

Wow, what a nice overall weekend. After the hard effort at Thursday's time trial, I actually felt just fine on Sunday. One recurring theme I'm noticing is that I run out of lungs before legs. I think it's time to work on some tempo rides and breathing exercises. As I've said before, my long mileage rides have suffered greatly this year so I think it's affected my aerobic fitness.

Friday was an unexpected pleasant surprise. My mom and wife had planned on going to see Stomp at the Civic Center. I was to hang with my beautiful baby girl and was planning to make a nice homemade card for Mother's day with her. At the last minute, mom decided she really didn't feel well so offered up hanging out with Corley (and sticking close by a toilet) and letting us take the tickets since they were freebies anyway. The show was way cool even if I did battle a shot of drowsiness in the middle. Anyone else have a recurring problem where they get about an hour into something like a movie/show/etc and hit a bought of sleepiness and then recover after about 15 minutes of trying not to nod off? That's a typical event for me which I still find pretty strange.

On Saturday morning I was looking forward to grabbing my bike to work week packet with socks (I was in the top 70 registered this year!) and then meeting up with Lou and a bunch of the Rassy death squad for some hill training and racing techniques. Mother nature decided that wasn't in the cards and the ride was cancelled out and rescheduled for early afternoon which put me out of the picture. We headed down to a friend's daughter's birthday party. It was a 3 year old princess party if that gives any indication... Actually, I had a good time hanging with the various other male figures doing our duty to grill meat and drink beer! After that it was presents galore and time to head home by 1. I surprisingly had a pretty damn good time. Saturday afternoon found me doing some chores like changing oil and going to the store. After an extended store trip, Miranda was a bit on the cranky side, but she'd get over it on Sunday...

Sunday being momma's day, I didn't plan any activities for myself. I got up in the morning and made some kickass pancakes that included ricotta cheese and orange zest. I've had this recipe bookmarked for over a year and finally got the chance to make it. I wouldn't call them exactly healthy, but the flavor and texture was awesome. Even Corley ate one and a half pancakes. Considering I could only finish 3 myself, I was pretty impressed. We'll definitely be doing those again. After breakfast it was card and present time. Not having the time to do a homemade card, I had Corley color one I had picked out and then we gave momma her present. My extended trip the day before had resulted in finding the DVD/VCR combo she's been wanting for the past couple of months. I installed it and now we have access to digital broadcast TV which kicks total ass! Miranda now has access via our old VCR to do her Tai-Bo down in the basement now which should yield some good results along with her other exercise class she's starting up.

Sunday afternoon was a double bonus. Miranda apparently hit her head on something and told me to take a couple hours to go riding. In shock, I waited a bit to test her resolve, but it held fast and I hurriedly changed and took off before she could say no. As my workout from Saturday was put on rain delay, I decided to make up for it on my own today. Hill repeats at Mcrea park were the order of the day. After a warmup/recon loop, I made it through 5 repeats before I felt my ass had been kicked. 100+ feet of climb on a .8 mile loop definitely was hard work. Word is that the Rassy guys are looking to hold a crit there next year. Damn... I can only imagine the pain some of the racer's will be in for that one. All told, I need some serious work on breathing and climbing skills. I took a leisurely ride on through parts of downtown looking for signs of additional biking life at the coffee shops, but didn't find any. I headed back home and treated myself to some additional hill work in the form of taking South Union street home from downtown in lieu of my usual ride up SE 5th. 1800' of total climb in 20 miles definitely gave me some work, but I felt really good when I got home and even hammered some of the hills on the way.

This morning was my first commute of the year. It was much easier than I remember it being last year. Of course, 4,000+ miles on the legs since then and a nicer ride (even though I rode the mountain bike this morning) might make a bit of a difference. I'm hoping to get more commuting in this year other than just during this week's Bike to work week, but we'll see. I have started riding to and from more rides this year in lieu of driving to them. I know that saves some gas and I get the bonus mileage so I'm happy with that as a good start.