"Air in tires" & "Slow down" part 2

Thanks for all the feedback and tips on how to get some air into my tires. I took notes and plan to tackle the issue this weekend. I need to be able to do this myself.

As for the ride last night, I left early and had my bike jersey unzipped just enough to reveal a peak of the girls *wink *wink. The bike mechanic at the shop offered me a free tune-up AND invited me to the Fourth of July century ride. I wonder what DH would think of that (the 4th happens to be our anniversary).

After taking a solid 48 hours off, I got back on the bike to do my first group ride of the season. I hemmed and hawed over which group to go with and ultimately decided against the group I knew I could ride with and tried the group I was wishing I could ride with (45 miles at 23 mph). I haven't ridden that fast in 2 years.

I felt great! I had no problem keeping the pace. Then, at mile 13 group A caught us and it became a show of testosterone. I had the unfortunate position at this point of being in the back of the pace-line as I had just done my pull. Suddenly the pace jumps to 28 mph and people are dropping in front of me! Another guy and myself managed to sprint and catch up to the main group. But then we hit a set of rollers and I was unable to keep up the pace on the climbs after the sprint effort. I finally got dropped. I joined up with two others and we kept a 21 mph pace. At mile 32 we got sight of the group. We thought we had 'em. The three of us doubled up our efforts doing quick rotations at almost a sprint pace for the last 12 miles. It was exhausting but exhilarating. I haven't challenged myself like that in a long time. It felt so good to ride fast. My confidence is back. I'm a happy girl.

And, they even had free ice-cold beer at the shop. I'm not normally a beer girl, but I had never tasted anything so good in my entire life. I just might have to find a regular babysitter for thursday nights.

Fantastic! Great story. You know how tough it is to catch a pace line... Good work!

A great ride and free beer? You definitely need that babysitter! :D (Congratulations re: the new bubs, by the way - I remember you mentioning you were pregnant a few months ago.)

I'm glad we talked about this -- when I went to get on my bike this morning (first time in six days) I thought it sounded odd -- the tires sounded a little "squeaky" on the pavement when I first started. I asked my husband if they looked low and he said not that he could tell. I told him we were supposed to be checking the air and it had been about two weeks since we aired them up, and he said, "Oh, they're fine, come on."

After a couple of miles I told him I was going home (they weren't sounding odd any more, but even though he didn't think they looked low, looking down on my front tire from above I thought it did).

We checked the tires.

Oh my gawd -- 35 pounds!

They are now aired up and fortunately without having probs first!

He didn't have time to check his before he went to work, but I'm sure he will tonight!