So as I said earlier today was supposed to be an off day. And after my swim this morning I spent the afternoon chatting with my friends and laying on the couch reading a book called "First Triathlons" which is a collection of stories about people completing their first tri. And I kept snacking on those little mini cliff bars. And it wasn't long before I'd eaten way too many of them. They are so bitsize though. But before you know it you've eaten 1000 calories. Ooops. So I'd better do something about it. Plus its way too nice out to stay inside. Penelope was headed to her Tae Kwon Do class at 530 and was going to ride her bike there. So I said I'd ride over with her and then go for a long recovery ride while she was in class and then ride back with her. So I suited up to ride and we left about 530. Penlope's bike is actually one of those electric assist bikes with a kiddie transport trailer on the back of it. So she's riding up front in her workout clothes and I'm behind on my road bike in a cycling jersey. We probably looked pretty silly. Oh and I didn't actually know her bike had a motor in it which was pretty funny. We were pedalling along and chatting and we came towards the first hill. I hear this wirring sound and then she shoots off up the hill. I had to stand on the pedals and gear up to catch up to her and keep up. I was think WTF? why am I struggling to match her pace considering her bike probably weighs 20lbs more than mine does? Yeah... thats when I realized it had a motor in it! But to her credit she only used it on the uphills and only on the way to class so she didn't burn out her legs before her primary workout.
Anyway... we split off at that point and I went off for my ride around the island. I picked a direction and rode with the general plan of following the coastline till 6:45 and then turning around to meet P when her class let out at 7:30 for the ride back to the house. The ride was really pretty. I went at a very relaxed pace as I just wanted to enjoy the scenery, recover from my hard effort yesterday and save some energy for my planned brick workout tomorrow. So today's ride was just to loosen up the legs and enjoy myself. It was a little on the cool side when I started but not too bad. Probably around 60 degrees, but that quickly lowered as the ride progressed, and it was quickly made to feel much much cooler when the wind really picked up. The crosswinds and headwinds at times were nuts. I was getting blown all over the road and the headwinds were turning descents into hard efforts. Somehow they never seemed to turn into tailwinds though. Which was annoying! Especially as descending into all those headwinds I felt like I would be rewarded when I climbed those hills on the way back with a tailwind. Nope. Somehow the wind kepts shifting about.
The scenery out here is amazing. It was such a beautifull ride. So nice to ride down roads with tall trees on either side of them or giant rolling fields, or a view of the ocean, and rocky beaches covered in driftwood. Its really quite spectacular out here. I did stop for a couple of quick pics... so here's some snapshots of my views today...
So at around 6:45 I figured I had better turn around if I wanted to be back at the TKD place by 7:30 to ride back with P. This was also about the time I realized that I'd done an awful lot of descending during the first part of the ride and that I'd have to do a LOT of climbing to get back there and I'd better be quick about it! So much for a relaxing ride! So I rode fairly hard the whole way back. It was made worse by the fact the wind had really picked up even more. The climbs into the strong headwind were no fun! But good training. I rolled into the TKD parking lot at 7:30 exactly but P wasn't there. I had told her not to wait for me. Turns out she had headed out a little earlier knowing that I was much faster than her and I'd catch up. So partly because I thought it would be fun I raced as hard as I could to catch her. Which I did about a mile later. So we rode the last couple of miles back to the house together. Including climbing a good sized hill where she turned the motor on and I had to race to stay with her. Any time a car would drive by she would pretend to be pedalling. I'm sure people were like why is she barely pedalling and he looks like he's working really really hard to keep up and he's on the fancy bike and she's on an older bike with a trailer in tow? Well for the record. She was cheating! Thats why! That motor really goes at quite a clip!
So another great day here out on SJI. Next up is a swim session in the lap pool first thing in the morning followed by a bike/run brick. And then a little nap perhaps and some reading and then my friend Andrew is coming in on the ferry as well so we'll add another person to the mix for the rest of the time I'm out here. I'm looking forward to it! Andrew has also said he's willing to rent a bike and go island hopping with me on the bikes/ferry. Should be good fun!
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