Rides - September 11th, Monday

[salsabike]

30 mile ride today in gorgeous weather. Got to take my shirt off when a bee went down it (note to self--get a Brandi Chastain-style sports bra for such moments). Did not get stung, I am glad to say (got stung by a yellow jacket on my neighbor's porch last week, figure that's enough). Ate some---yes---gnats. Did my little hill. Got my bald eagle sighting quotient for the day. Wished I could just do this every day.

[uk elephant]

Finally got started on my plan of cycling home from work. I only started in my new job last week, but last week my dad was visiting so I had to get home right after work. My new job is actually the same as my old job more or less. Same office, same boss, slightly different tasks. But I had two months off between jobs so I haven't done the ride home in quite a while. My plan is to ride half way home on days when I work full days. On days when I work half day, I'll aim to ride the whole way home.

So Monday I headed for the halfway ride. It is 20 miles (actually 19, but I do ride 2 miles to work from the station in the morning so I count it as 20). The ride includes the closes thing I get to a big hill anywhere around here. It's not big by normal standards, but for Essex it's not bad. I took a while to warm up and was feeling particularly tired and achy at the beginning of the ride, but still kept a good pace up the hill. Good for me that is. I managed not to drop below 7mph the whole way up which I was really happy with. Happy enough to give me a burst of energy and I was flying in to the station by the end of the ride. My avg speed for the whole ride was 13mph. Faster than I've ever kept up on that distance before. I must be getting in better shape without realizing it. And to top it all off, it was a glorious sunny day without being too hot. Just perfect.