Good ride today!

Weather made us bikers take a break this week. Tuesday night we had huge winds and storms that took a lot of tree's down and made the roads more than unfriendly for those of us on two skinny wheels.  By Thursday everything was pretty well cleaned up but then I found my self working later than usual and ended up scrapping Thursday and Friday rides I had planned.

Luckily, my friend and boss (at GE Healthcare), Tony called me Thursday and we planned a 20 mile ride for Saturday morning. However, by Friday he had convinced me to go longer. Me, not wanting to let an old man kick my butt, opened my big mouth and said let's do your 34 mile loop after he suggested it. Believe me though, he can do much farther than that.

So, today I woke up about 4 am and laid in bed until 4:45 am when I just couldn't take it anymore. I got up, had some Cheerio's and some coffee, then jumped in the shower. About 6 am I pinged Tony to see if he was ready ahead of our 7 am start time; and alas, he was. I hurried over and we got a 6:30 start.

Just at 7 miles in Tony got a flat which he got fixed relatively quickly, but then the tube at the stem was poking out the tire and riding behind him I could see the lump every time it came to the top of the rotation. So then we had to deflate the tire and fix the tube; finally we got on our way. During all this the The Woodlands cycling club passed us up; I'd say about 40 riders in all.

I told Tony I wanted to stay around 15-18 Mph, but I found that most of the trip we were cruising between 18-20 Mph and then the hills just kept on coming. At mile 30 we were closing in on his house but Flintridge Drive is nothing but about 2-3 miles of rolling hills. At about 31.5 miles I totally gassed out on those dang hills. I slowly made it back to the house limping along at about 15 mph.

It was an awesome ride though. It was great to ride with Tony and having a ride partner is so much more interesting and fun. Tony really pushed me with his pace, but it showed me what I can do and that only after a short time of being back in the saddle. Thanks Tony.

Here's our route this morning:

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