Helmet

After much nagging from my Mom, and some welcome advice from Dr. Touchlove, and from the bike shop, I found a great helmet. I'll miss the once red now orange Giro Monza if for nothing more than the amount of time I've had it. I'm saving it for guest riders at my house (who may use the new of course). But the new lazer 02 is fabulous. It fits snug as a bug and feels like someone is hugging your head, plus I got it in matte white to make the scott look even hotter. I couldn't wait to test it out last night and had a great bike with it.

climb every mountain

I decided to ride with the big dogs on their Tuesday night ride to add some variety to my riding. I've been mostly going out Great Northern on my weekday rides and I needed some spice. Well, spice they did add. The whole time they needled me about how I "might like a bigger cassette to get up the hills we were going to ride on." My mind immediately started conjuring up large mountains, switch-backing, stand peddling my way up, and praying I didn't fall over. It seems as usual my imagination got the better of me. We talked at the bottom of lost creek and they assured me I would be fine, I was. I slayed the Lost Creek dragon, it was much easier than I thought, I wasn't too far behind, and had lots of juice left at the finish. It wasn't easy, but oh so much more doable than I had envisioned. It just goes to show you, that you shouldn't let your imagination run too wild and go for it. It did wonders not just to strengthen my legs but to my add confidence to my climbing ability when I ride.

Let me out!

This was the Scott as we waited for the guys of Austin Bikes to show up for the 9 AM group ride. This was also the Scott as we drove home from the group ride because nobody came and I figured if I was going to ride by myself I'd rather go later when it was warmer. Neither one of these freebirds likes to be locked up in a car staring at a barbed wire fence when it is early in the morning and COLD. It took me awhile to get over, but I made it out for a late afternoon ride on my own when the weather was much more pleasant and my mood had improved, the ride itself helped improve my mood as did going by the kite festival. I rode the 360 loop and felt really good on the hills. I latched onto a rider starting out and he said I could ride with him as he was going around 45 miles and that is about what I wanted to do. At the beginning I thought I would have trouble keeping up with him especially since he said he wanted to do the Tour de Hugel and hills are my weakness. When I passed him going up our first hill I knew I was a bit stronger. I waited after each climb because I felt like I said we could ride together, but ended up losing him around Mopac (I waited for a good while at the top of a hill), hmm I hope he is okay, well I guess it just wasn't a good day for group riding, but I felt good out there on the Scott and had fun taking a lap around Great Northern oh and had fun catching and passing the guy on the bike who jetted out in front of me at the light - the Scott is amazing. Do you think that maybe I'm a wee bit competitive? I know if I rode with the shop guys I would have been spanked so ...

aero

I've been wanting to do a group ride for awhile and noticed that Jack and Adams has a new group ride that goes out east. I've mostly been riding on the North side and West side of town so even though temps were in the 30s when I awoke Sunday morning I thought, "why not?" I made it to Jack in Adams before the wheels rolled which is accomplishment number one and stood around waiting to start. My legs were shaking, ridiculously (I can't believe how nervous I get around new people, but you learn to deal with it). Soon we were rolling and that did and usually does take away all nerves for me. The weather was slowly beginning to warm so I was comfortable going out. One of the guys said he wanted to do a sixty mile route as most of the group was only doing around twenty-six and I said I would join. My legs were a little tired from Saturday's 10 miler but just mostly on the hills and I knew I would be fine if I just kept a comfortable cadence and he assured me he would, four other guys decided to join and our little posse took off. I felt pretty good the whole ride, when I was starting to feel grouchy I ate and that helped. At about forty-five miles we pulled into Manor for a pit stop and refueling. One of the guys at the station joked around with us. "You gonna let a girl beat you guys" he said. The guys nodded their heads "yep". I knew they were holding their own and we were going the perfect pace. I was thankful to have someone lead me on a new route which made the whole ride fun and refreshing. As we were approaching the end one of the riders asked me, "I see you are in your aero bars most of the time, is it more comfortable?" I smiled back at him "Yes, I've been working on staying aero 'cause it is much more efficient." Inside I was laughing, if only Dr. Toughlove could hear the question I was asked, he would be so proud. I've been working hard on staying aero and spinning and someone noticed : )