It was absolutly gorgeous yesterday. High was 79 and I wore shorts and a sleeveless jersey to the club ride last night. About twenty of us turned up. Everyone caught up on what everyone else did over the winter, who got new bikes, etc...

Last fall, my usual group was the 17mph's. Our leader wasn't there so we got grouped with the 15's. After climbing the first hill and waiting to regroup, the 15's leader told us we were allowed to split off if we wanted to. Our club is very insistent that we do the POSTED average. Too many horror stories from other rides that say they're doing something only to do much faster, drop people in the middle of nowhere and people get hoplessly lost as they dont' regroup. About seven of us looked at each other and said let's do our usual 17 mph.

So there I was, my BF leading the group. We had taken my car to the ride and his computer was in his truck so he had no idea what speed we were doing. I'm hanging on for dear life with the pack, going "$hit this is hard, we're doing 25 in the flats!" Another hill comes and I fall off the back, by the time I'm at the top, everyone is a speck of dust on the horizon!

I was pissed to say the least but then I got to thinking...
Last March I was a 12 - 15 mph rider
I have ridden four days in a row (100+ miles) this week and did not ride ONE day outside all of Febuary!
All I ate was a salad for lunch. Sucked a gel down before the ride but that was nowhere near enough.
I commuted for the FIRST TIME today to work and back, happened to meet up with one of my racing buddies on the commute so went faster and harder than orginally planned PLUS I have this really ugly hill I have to climb on the way home so I was already spent.

At the stop sign I gave the BF some attitude. He apologized for getting everyone so worked up. You know how it is, one guy goes fast and the next thing you know, you're immersed in a testosterone fest!

BUT I'm happy, averaged 16.9 and like I said, I'm already ahead of last years performance levels!!!

Jeni