First Ride Outside

How pathetic.  Its the third week of May and I rode outside this morning for the first time this year.  So much for being a hard core roadie.  Reality is, marathon training got in the way and the days I was supposed to ride, it was either pouring rain/cold or its was too early to be riding at 5 am outside (ie not light enough).

Today was perfect as I headed out about 6:15 am.  The sun was already up and a slight breeze.  The temperature was a little chilly at 15 degrees Celsius but I figured it would warm up.  The plan was a light easy ride for about one hour as I'm still tired from the Marathon.  Oh speaking of which, the shin splints have almost gone away but I'm still limping as under my right foot behind the big toe, its all swollen and painful to walk on.  I'm not sure where this injury came from as it didn't start hurting until a couple of days after the race.  In fact last night, I woke up around 3 am (courtesy of Jake) and it was throbbing.  I couldn't get back to sleep so I came downstairs and iced it.  I'll get Kevin (chiropractor) to look at it tomorrow.  The clinic is closed but he'll open it for me.  How awesome service is that?

I rode my usual my usual loop with no real intentions of anything but taking it easy.  I rode along Warden Ave where there is a nice 6 km straight away and I usually tried to keep my speed at 30 km\hr.  The first time I rode outside a couple of years ago with my brother, we averaged about 22 km\hr.  There were a couple of riders ahead of me so I used that as an incentive to chase them down.  Once I caught up to them I kept at 30 km\hr and decided to take the longer route up to Bloomington Road.  On Warden there is a gradual hill but the hill on the next road over is twice as steep.  I love bombing down this hill and this morning I hit about 63 km\hr in areo position of course.  I boogied home at a pretty good clip (for me at least).  I was kind of surprised that I was riding at this speed but I did take the easier route.  Kennedy Ave is easier to ride southbound than ride northbound.

I did the 41 km route in 1:13 for an average 34 km\hr which includes getting caught at two stoplights.  Maybe all those stupid one-legged drills are paying off.  That said, I'd be hard pressed to go out for a longer ride.  A friend invited me out for a 100 km ride.....ummm not a chance.