Better weekend - May 14-16

Had a pretty good weekend - a few ups and downs, but as I sit here I feel good about it.

Thursday - I blew off my drills thinking I would be doing a 200 on Fri and 300 on Sat. Plus my inlaws were in town. The guest room was clean, but the "randonneur sleep over" room was not. So I cleaned it up in anticipation that I would have a friend spending the weekend riding with me. Thursday night she called and cancelled - bummer!

Friday - I rode my Roosevelt 200k completely alone and had my best 200 time ever - 9 hr 52 min. This is about 30 min faster than my best time on this route and almost 2 hours faster than my Jan time (I did have a flat in Jan). It was really hot the entire ride, but I just rode my bike and had a good time. I was very pleased to finally have a 200k come in under 10 hrs.

Saturday - everything was screwed up from the get go. I was pissed that I had to ride alone. Sometimes I just get tired of myself on these long rides. As I am loading my car to go out to a new route at 6 am, I notice my dog is acting very funny - well miserable. I believe she is sick so I stay home and wait for the vet clinic to open at 9 am. While at the vet (dog has infection and although still miserable is on meds and will be okay), my daughter calls and needs help. I am still in the bike clothes I dressed in at 6am, but I go help her. 2:30 I finally head out to the ride start just hoping to ride until dark. I get there to realize I don't have my cap. I have to wear a cap for the visor under my helmet. It helps to keep the sun (and rain) out of my eyes on the bent. Oh well, I ride without it. 3 miles into the ride it starts raining cats and dogs (come to find out I am in a yellow band of rain on weather channel). It is raining so hard that I can't see through my glasses and I can't keep my eyes open in the rain without the glasses. I only make it two more miles before I decide to hell with it and head to the car. That was the hardest rain I have ever ridden in and was very glad to get out of it after only 8 miles. Thought about riding from the house after the rain died down, but by the time I got home I was done. I did put my two Dallas routes for next weekend into my Garmin. That should help save time next week. I am disappointed that I only rode 10 miles, but it just wasn't happening.

Sunday - met Nancy my triathlete friend on the south trace for a ride. It is supposed to start to rain at any minute, so I am prepared with my cap, rain jacket, arm and leg warmers. She only needed to do 50 miles and a 1 hour run so we parked the cars and did a 25 mile out and back. We did that leg in 16.4 mph. She then started her run and I went back out for another 50. About 10 miles into my ride it starts raining - yes! I wanted to make up for yesterday and get a good couple hours rain riding in. However, the rain is light and only lasts 2 or 3 miles tops. I keep my jacket on knowing it will start back and downpour soon. I get to my turn around still with no more rain. I take my jacket off knowing that as soon as I do, it will start raining again. Dang it, I rode the entire 100 miles with only a slight 3 mile rain. Darn, I was ready for it too. I did the second 50 in 15.7 mph. I don't know what time we started for sure, but I think I did the whole 102 miles in 7 hours or less. While riding with my friend, we did not pace each other, but did "intervals" up the hills where I would try to stay with her. We would also play "rabbit" where one of us would go out in front a ways and the other had to chase. I pushed pretty hard with her on the hills. My legs were heavy at the start like always, but then they would warm up pretty good. I tried to push myself while I was riding alone, and although I was pleased with my average, it still wasn't as fast as with her. I would have ridden longer but David wanted to go to the movies later in the afternoon

Surprising, I feel great right now. My legs are slightly tired, but don't hurt. I have a lot of energy without having anything out of the ordinary to give me a spark.

Next weekend I will be doing 2 back to back 200s. The first will have over 7000 ft of climbing - all rollers - not sure how long or steep or anything, but all rollers. The second 200 will also be a lot of rollers, but not as intense as the first days. Not sure what the feet climbing will be. I will want to ride Sunday afternoon, but I don't know how much time I will have.