Ritual or Tacos?

Man, it was a tough decision last night. With the weather being great for a change, both the Ritual ride and Taco ride were in full swing last night. The Taco ride is still suffering a bit from the flooding shutting down a number of trails, but there are still some ridable pieces out there. Considering it has been a couple weeks since I've put in anything close to resembling a hard effort, I figured I probably wasn't in shape to stick with the A group for the Ritual Ride, but it would at least offer the opportunity to bloew the cobwebs out.

I shucked out of work a shade after 4 and scooted home (literally). A few more indecisive moments were spent when Miranda informed me her plans for the evening had fallen through. I offered up to go out to dinner and do something with her, but she opted to lock herself in the office and work on updating some new products for the store. I decided to head to down Ritual ride and took off on the road bike.

I got a nice warm up on the way down and then pretty much cooled off by the time we took off from the cafe. We did a pretty slow roll out as a group down Fleur and worked our way over to Brown's Woods Drive. Donny had told us that once we crossed 63rd, we could stretch our legs out so I followed that advice and hit the gas a little harder. I looked back and for some reason I was off the front by a pretty good margin. I figured the pack would reel me in shortly so I just stayed on it and got the heart rate pumping. Donny finally pulled me pack as we made the turn down past Orilla and had me jump on his wheel as a few other riders pulled up as well. I'm sure they were taking it easy, but it still felt good to go out strong for a little while.

I chased them through the first lap and fell off at the soccer hill. By the end of the second lap I was pretty well spent and rolled up around 5th to the starting point of the loop where everyone was sitting. I'd bounced my heart rate up to the 194 range a few times and was feeling it so the break was great. On top of that as soon as we rolled out it felt like the AC was turned on. I split off from the group and headed down 63rd where I was met by the only asshole of the night. He laid on the horn and gave me the universal signal for WTF as he drove by even though he never had to slow down to get around me. Apparently changing lanes is too much of a hassle for some people to have to go through without getting upset.

All in all it was a good ride and I managed to turn myself inside out a few times as well. I rode (an actual bike) in this morning as well. My legs were feeling it for sure as I started out, but I cruised at a pretty steady pace all the way in. That makes 3 days since I've driven my truck. I love it!