Sandbagging

My favorite part of the ride today was mile 14, where there's a nice gentle downhill for about a mile (with one short hill in the middle) just before the 4 way stop at the entrance to my development; I asked my cycling partner to hammer it while I drafted him and kept asking him to go one more gear until he hit about 26 of 27 mph and we flew home. It was one great mile!

John had to peal off after our hour and I was going for another 2 hours. We'd picked up another rider, about 15 minutes into our ride, who caught us from behind and was content to draft us for the full hour, not wanting to ride ahead because he was unsure of the roads and just getting back on his bike after some years of not riding. He was certainly pleasant enough, although said little as John and I rode pretty much side by side for the hour with him right behind us. And he missed our hammering last mile dash as his drafting skills were not up to the challenge, or he felt uncomfortable doing so.

When John turned for home he joined me for the continuation of the ride, as I invited him along -- and he followed me and promptly sped up another 2 mph faster than the three of us had been going, and suddenly I was struggling to keep up. Mind you, if my leg was 100% I could have, but I couldn't see the point in risking injury -- so I kept my pace and forced him to slow up -- since I knew the way and he didn't. Thankfully he pulled off after another hour when he was in more familiar territory.

But clearly this guy had some decent ability. For a person not to have ridden in years, and just get back on the bike and do about 35 miles at 18-20 is pretty good, from my slow vantage point. He had told me that he was content to do 15/16 -- but he was clearly faster than that.

I finished today's 48 in good aerobic fashion, but can still feel the groin soreness and the hamstring soreness. Clearly doing 160 miles a week is not facilitating healing!

Today was the one month "anniversary" of getting back on the bike after my 2 month layoff. Getting back in shape.Slowly. And with the exception of the non-healing injury I'd say my fitness level is back where it typically is this time of year.