Sunny Days.

The Tuesday evening road ride from the shop was an absolute blast. I felt really good and strong so that always helps. So does the sun and warm weather. Or the fact that 10 riders strong left the shop together. Or, and probably a major one, the fact that this was my first ride outside on my Felt F3. 15 some pounds...crazy. Wicked light, stiff, and fast. All a good mix. I ride long and slow most of the time. I treat Tuesday as my "intensity" day. I'm sure there are many "junk" miles in there too, but who cares, I'm having fun riding my bike. I don't look at my heart rate to see if I'm going too hard or not hard enough. I go as hard as the guy out front. Sometimes that's me and sometimes it's not. Of course we rolled to the Alp. This may be the best I felt going up the "hill" of Stearns county. I was with the lead group stop sign to stop sign. I felt I was able to recover faster than the past as well. Hope this continues through out the summer! We ended in the dark with 2.5 hours of riding and 50 miles. Wednesday was another early start. Up at 4, riding by 5, with work at noon. I didn't have a real route planned out so I somewhat meandered. Roughly I went: St. Cloud, St. August, Fairhaven, Marty, Richmond, Chain of Lakes, Farming, St. Martin, Albany, St. Stephens, Sartell and home. Mostly pavement but some gravel tossed in as well. The legs felt pretty good! On some of the extended climbs they started to complain but not too bad...sweet. Ended with 5.5 hours and 92 miles. I was somewhat shooting for 100 but had some soup to make in the crockpot before I headed to work...next time. I'm feeling much better and stronger for Trans Iowa V7 than I was a month ago. I'm actually feeling pretty damn excited for it. All that needs to happen now is cooperative weather...fingers are crossed. With the past few days being nice the shop has been slammed with repairs. My hands are struggling to adjust to the new found work of wrenching. Tired joints and dirty hands are now set in for the season! Bring it. Out.