I get up early and get ready to ride. I strip my bike of all unneccessary stuff.
I ride to the meeting place, getting a 1 mile warmup along the way, but with 100m to go, I flat. I replace the rear tube, but I realize my pump was shot and I threw it away yesterday. A nice chap, Jan, loans me his and I'm good to go. I look around and there are about 30 - 40 riders, including about 6 women.
We take off and go really slow, 15 - 17 mph for a couple of miles, and then slowly pick it up to about 22 after about 5 miles. But no more! There was a nice peloton of 2 abreast and the slipstream was great. There would be occasional surges to 26 - 27, but I hang with them just fine. We finally settle into a pace of about 24 - 25mph and I go past the location when I dropped off 2 weeks ago, feeling great, with a very reasonable heart rate of 120 - 125 at this time. We go about 2 more miles at this pace when pffffffffffffffft - my rear tires flats again! Apparently, when I changed the tire, the tube must have been caught under the tire bead. Oh well. Jan stops to assist and to offer his pump, again, and we ride together another 20 miles.
I had so much fun today, I am gonna make this a weekly ride.
Total for the day: 32 miles at 18.6 mph.
Total for the week: Road: 84 miles, averaging 18.3 mph. Mountainbiking: 4 hours. 2 spin classes: 1.5 hours. Stationary bike: 1/2 hour. 1 hour swimming lesson. 2.8 miles running: 27 minutes.
The really good news is my deep breathing when using the intercostal rib muscles, injured from my collision with a rock on Monday, did not hurt today!
I'm going to Columbus Ohio tonight and am gonna take it easy next week. I'm going to focus on running and swimming this week while out of town. In two weeks, I am doing the Horrible Hundred bike ride, so I need to start preparing for it.