I'm Going To Miss My Bike!

Went out for another ride today...   I had only planned on doing an hour this morning as I have a lot to do for work before I head out of town for a week.  But once I got on the bike and the sun started to come up there was no way I was going to turn around at 30 minutes in.  So I did the whole length of the bike path today (26.56 Miles).  It felt really good.  I did it in 1:44:10 which is a 15.3mph average.  That also factors time in for stopping at lights, dodging large groups of mom's blocking the path and other obstructions.  I wonder if somewhere theres a nice place to ride TT style for a nice long distance with no stopping so I can really start to set benchmarks and note my progress.  Anyway... it was a beautifull spring morning on the path today.  I really enjoyed the ride.

I did some more reading of the Tr-NE message boards today, and I think I'm certainly ready for either a group ride or joining up with some folks for some longer rides.  I think I can manage a 16mph pace without too much trouble, and as long as the course isn't super hilly I should be able to keep up.  Not that I'm afraid of hills, I just haven't done too many of them on the bike yet so I'm sure I'll have a lot to learn about the best way to pace myself up them. 

In other news...  my calf felt better today again so the massage definitely helped.  So that was good.  I think the fact I'll be away from my bike for a week and also can't run till May 1 means that it should heal up nicely.  I think I just sort of upset it when I went all out on the bike right away.  But its returning to normal.  I can't wait till May when hopefully I'm entirely injury free and can really get cracking!

So some upcoming short term goals...

-join some group rides, or find a riding partner for a ride or two.
-force myself to join up with some slower runners for my first May runs.  No fast stuff.  I need to find a 10 min/mile runner and let them pace me for a while as I build my distance back up.
-sign up for a 5K and slaughter my PR from the only other time I've done one.
-get some private swimming instruction scheduled
-setup an initial training schedule.

For now I think this week while I'm in Florida I'll focus on strength training and some yoga.  I'll likely do some elliptical stuff as well as try and do some one legged pedal drills on a bike if the hotel gym has one.  Normally I'd focus on running... but that will have to wait till May.

I'll close by saying I am really psyched by how much I'm taking to the road bike.  Its feeling more and more comfy every day.  I love how the miles fly by.  I'm going to miss it....