Tempered weekend

Unless your job typically calls for a weekend workday, working on weekends sucks. It doesn't matter how you justify it, whether it be overtime, flex time, or whatever, it still sucks. As such, I wasn't looking forward to Saturday in the least. I managed to drag my butt in for most of the day until the carpet cleaning crew kicked me out with the smell of their chemicals. I did find a good way to temper the workday by riding in to work. After I finished up, I was slated to go home and kick back for a bit. Hmm, I'm all ready on my bike, why not just head out on a ride since I didn't need to pick up Corley until 6 or so.

I decided to head through downtown and see if I could make it through since I didn't know what bridges and routes were still open. I made it through pretty easily sliding down University and then heading south on 2nd to Grand. I never quite realized how long the climb is out of downtown on Grand. I set my sites on heading over to Rassy's to see who might be kicking it at the shop. I was hoping for a beer break with Squirrel, but as luck would have it, he was currently on the east side that I'd just come from! He would show up later on to the shop with Teri and we still enjoyed a brew after they closed up for the evening.

I must have had some type of tailwind on the way home as I put the mountain bike through it's paces all the way home from the shop. I felt pretty good with the exception of my ass getting rubbed raw from a crappy set of shorts. Time to hang them up and grab a new set of baggies. I bought these almost 8 years ago and while they have very little use, they're a size too big so I don't get the right coverage and damn does that suck!

The call went out for a 6 am ride on Sunday with some local big hitters. I hemmed and hawed, but finally made up my mind that I'd show up and see how long I could hang on before they totally destroyed my. It was my father's day present to myself!? We headed through town and south winding our way to Cumming before turning down on G14 towards Winterset. I'd all ready been redlined a few times by now, but was still hanging on running halfway through zone 4 for me. The pace eased a little and I kept on the tail until the first big climb. I fell off the back like I threw out a parachute as they sprinted the hill. Luckily they dropped the pace down until I could be drug back up to the group (thanks I think?). I stayed with them figuring I'd be dropped again on the next big climb. Anyone who's ridden that road will know it. It's the right hand turn that goes up and up and up, until you think it will never end. It's not extremely steep, but man does it drag on.

I forced my way to the top way behind the group and turned back knowing I couldn't hang on any longer and didn't want to slow the group down any further. I collected some nice tailwind and set sail for home. There were a huge number of cyclists headed south which was awesome to see. I bonked on the way home due to some poor nutritional planning. Apparently 2 bottles of Heed and a granola bar for breakfast aren't enough to fuel a 54 mile hard ride. I didn't even have the advantage of a gel or two as I hadn't planned far enough ahead to have any available to bring with me. Ahh well, all is good as I made it back in one piece and headed for home.

The rest of the day was spent mostly being lazy and enjoying some time with the wife and daughter. I chose to go out for some barbecue for dinner and had a nice meal topped off with a few brews. I even headed in to work for another hour or so to finish checking through a set of drawings. Sheesh, I see a pattern emerging for the time being. I'm hoping to take advantage of the weather this week and ride the new bike in at least a few times. New bike you ask? Stay tuned and all will be revealed kiddies. Later.