April 20th rides

[sundial]

I did just a smidgen under 20 miles. I could have ridden more but everyone was pooped out and needed to get back home. It was sunny, in the high 60's, and slightly breezy.

[MALcontent]

Today I took a great women's road riding and racing clinic with Nicole Freedman, former Olympian and two-time national champion. Forty of us of various experience and ages worked on lots of different skills. My favorite was practicing staying up during contact with other cyclists. We rode in a circle and the contest was to be the last one remaining on her bike. We had to keep our hands and feet on the bike at all times. Holy cow did this appeal to my competitive nature! I immediately started bumping into people. They were initially quite taken aback, but soon most people got into the spirit. I cut the obvious novices some slack. And I'm sad to report I wasn't the last one "standing." A couple of riders came up short ahead of me and I popped off my bike. The other skill I progressed on a lot was cornering. If you ever have a chance to take a clinic with Nicole, do!

[Triskeliongirl]

Today was our first century of the season, the Wildflower which is part of San Antonio's annual fiesta celebration. I planned to do the metric, since I still didn't have a lot of recent mileage under my belt, but they had to make some last minute route changes due to construction so I ended up with 72 miles. I felt great, my blood sugars were in a great range without eating any carbs (an issue for me since I have impaired glucose tolerance), and my time was excellent for me, especially given that it is a hilly and windy course. While I wasn't out there with the fastest men, my peer group were young and middle aged fit looking men (and women) which always feels good. As soon as I got home, I had to make a BBQ for some friends we invited over. We were frazzled at first, but everyone had a great time and now I am gonna collapse!

[K8sgotgame]

I did a nice little 18 mile beach ride. It was good, but slow because my roommate insisted on roller blading so I kept jumping ahead of him and then waiting... or pulling him He took a short cut on the way back on our loop so I got about 6 miles without him which were good.