Sizaturday

Man, this weekend couldn't get here fast enough! Last week was rough at work with some long days. After back to back 12+ hour days followed by a day where I had to ask to leave after 10 hours so I could go ride, Friday I was leaving on time come hell or high water! I will say this- sometimes with industrial machinery it is very difficult to determine if a problem is mechanical or electrical...

Anyhow, Friday I took my road bike to work with me so I could ride from downtown right after work. I had a short Zone 1/ Zone 2 recovery spin to transiton me from Thursday's intervals to Saturday and Sunday's hard rides. After my ride I stopped by the shop to get my mtn bike, but the shop had closed early for a wedding so I headed home to do some serious cleaning on the ol' Madone. I can't belive how nasty road bikes can get! My garage is such an awesome little get-away... I can tinker with the bikes while I blast the stereo and visit the beer fridge for hours!

Saturday I got up early to do the Open Road ride. Its probably the fastest group ride in town with an 'A' designation and speeds at a constant 25+. I had intervals scheduled for the day but after talking to Drew, I could get them done during the group ride. My plan was to stay towards the front and work- work by taking good pulls and even go out on a little solo break away if possible. I felt good at the start of the ride and the tendonitis in the back of my right knee hadn't bothered me the last 3 rides. After the warm up, the ride kicked up and I stayed towards the front working with the select few. I did manage to go out on a short-lived solo break away, took some good pulls and covered gaps twice. Covering gaps is what always wears me down the most. Towards the end of the 41 mile ride, I sat in as much as possible in order to be fresh for the sprint. After the final turn headed back, I was looking around at the heavy hitters- there was at least 1 pro, a few 1/2's, Rad and several other studs so I knew it was going to be a hard, strong finish. As the speed picked up and people started peeling off and the peloton was dropped, I was in a great spot but seemed to be barely hanging on. When the sprint took place, I dug deep, jumped out of the saddle and pushed it to the max- taking 4th in the sprint! Not bad. I spent over half of the ride in Zone 4 and 5 and in the sprint my HR peaked at 186 while my speed maxed out at 34.9. Man, I love thise rides. Its like an actual road race every week!

After the ride I helped Rad out with his road rash he suffered from a crash he had after the ride from some bozo on a department store bike being an idiot. Actually local pro Katie cleaned him up while I made jokes to divert the attention from the blood so Rad wouldn't faint. Ok, so I wouldn't faint. From there I stopped by BE and got my mtn bike, chatted with the owner Mike for a bit and headed home to get started on all the crap I needed to do for the rest of the day- like clean the house.

Char had a very long brick workout (3 hour ride/45 minute run) and after my morning ride and then cleaning the house for a few hours, we were both too spent to go to Katie's party. We decided to focus our efforts on dinner and then getting everything ready for having Josh & Bobbi over for UFC on PPV that night. We still needed to get appetizers, more booze from Total Wine and order wings from Dick's. So...jumping straight to the UFC- we had a good time. We had Josh & Bobbi over for a low-key evening. We always have such a good time with those guys. The fights were very good- Wanderlei Silva knocked out Keith Jardine, Machida got a decision over Tito Ortiz and BJ Penn totally worked over Sean Sherk. The fights on the undercard were also pretty damn exciting with a few KO's...

So here I am now, waiting on TJ and Rad to go ride the mtn bikes up at Ft Clinch State Park in Fernandina. I'm anxious to get back on the mtb considering how much time I spend on the road bike every week. Plus, I need to make sure everything is dialed in for the race in Alabama next weekend. Hell, I actually need to burn off some of the calories I consumed yesterday eating like a glutton...baby back ribs for dinner, Dick's wings during the fight, BIG desert before bed....