Sunday, July 20, 2008

Leg breaker weekend

Ahh, the weekend. The time for rest, relaxation, and breaking legs? That was the recipe for Saturday morning. Only an endurance pace ride for Pete, Lou, Pig, and a couple other boys in black but that meant I was in for some hurt. I haven't had nearly enough time on the bike lately, but signed on anyway. Damn boys, I know you like to go early, but a 5:45 start time from the west side means a 4:30 wake up call for me. I rolled my bleary eyed ass out of bed and got everything ready to roll. I was greeted by a foggy and humid morning rolling in.

The original call was for 80 miles on the Winterset loop, but I was only planning to hang as long as I could and then limp it back home on empty. We actually rolled out a bit of a different route heading the reverse of how I typically ride it. We rolled through Orilla, down to Norwalk, and then through Martensdale. I hung pretty well into Martensdale and then it was discussed to shorten the ride to St Mary's and back. Somewhere around this point Lou made the comment that at the front of the pace line we should be drilling it since we were able to recover in the draft. I laughed out loud at that one considering my heart rate was averaging 170-175 in the draft and 180+ up front. We hit the first big roller south of Martensdale and I popped half way up running the heart rate to 190. I'd been pushing hard enough long enough that I didn't push on through and fell off the back quickly. I hit one more roller headed south and turned for home figuring they'd catch me somewhere around the edge of town.

As I turned I checked my average speed and made a mental note to try to stay on the gas and keep my pace up. I rolled in through town and headed back to the parking lot. It was a zoo with everyone loading up for the spectacle that is Ragbrai. Luckily I had enough forethought to park at the far end of the lot so I was out of the way enough to get out easily. Micah showed back up about 10 minutes after I got there and let me know the others stopped for coffee downtown. I headed out to go meet them. As we headed out from coffee, Lou offered up the second half of his cup since he was still on 2 wheels and I was headed home. Not one to let a good cup go to waste, I took it home. Damn! I'm not sure what his order was, but I was like a squirrel on crack when I got home!!

The rest of the weekend was pretty nice as well. We got a little family time in along with some house cleaning for the afternoon and then dropped little one off at Grandma's. We hit a nice dinner at Latin King before we headed out in search of some commercial property. We're seriously thinking of opening a storefront for our lingerie business. Things are starting to move for us locally with our product getting put out in a few locations, so it's time to think about doing some of our own sales.

We headed down to the science center after that to catch Dark Night in IMAX. The movie kicked some serious ass, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend seeing it in IMAX. There's just too much sensory input and while it can be processed, it isn't the same as being able to catch it all on a regular screen. Definitely check out the movie either way.

I actually slept in a bit this morning since Corley spent the night with grandma. I hit work for a few hours and tried to get some stuff done. I wasn't alone in my Sunday slave labor. I picked up Corley after her nap and decided we'd go do some playing this afternoon. Squirrel apparently still has his text ring tone shut off and I didn't hear back from them so we headed out on our own. I hooked the trailer up to the Bianchi for the first time. We rolled to the grocery store to pick up a few frosty adult refreshments and some treats for later as well. After dinner, we took another short ride up to the park.



Corley LOVES to swing. She'll tell you that's what she wants to do if you ever give her an option to go do something. We swung and did the slides for a while and headed back to the house. I took a little bit of a detour to get some hills in dragging the trailer. Talk about a leg breaker! Nothing like dragging an extra 40 pounds up a hill with you.



It was a good thing I took that long way home. My first real freegan find while riding. There was a nice shiny Craftsman wrench with a ratchet box end. Sweet! Another block to home and it was time to wind the weekend down. Hopefully this week will bring some sanity back to work. I'm headed to the job site on Tuesday and while things don't seem too over the top right this second, I'll be holding my breath until I head home on Tuesday night. I might try to sneak in a ride up there with one of the owner's reps who happens to be a triathlete.

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