Ryan (Week 4)

Week 4

Week 4 - Friday - 48 miles
Ryan and I took Friday off to do a long ride. The weather report was for great weather and indeed it was. We started out at what has become the dreaded Mt Vernon route - actually it's only the first 5 miles (and therefore the last 5 miles too) that are dreaded....you can tell we're not really into hills yet :-). We planned on doing 45 miles, hoping for 50. At the bottom of the first hill, Ryan developed a new "warm-up" procedure - I'm toodling along and here "stop" from behind...loud enough that there was no mistake. So, imagining blood and guts when I turned around, i found him searching his pockets, wondering where his wallet was. Since he had switched tops we figured (and hoped) that it was back in the car. So we got our first hard work-out of the day (after less than 10 minutes of riding by the way) by having to do THE HILL right away. But at least both of us made it up without stopping. Fortunately his walleet was in the car so we started off again. After we completed the first 5 miles we rode along together acting pretty cocky that this "seemed easier" this week. We were talking away and it was great because there was hardly any traffic. We ventured to new territory by getting to the W+OD Trail which was fairly flat and it was a beautiful day. We rode on to about mile 25 on our odometers...that meant we should be doing 50 miles round trip, right? That's what we thought. The reason we stopped where we did was that I had wanted to find a 7-11 to fill up my camelbak - today was the first day we used our camelbaks and they work great. i didnt even know it was there. But Ryan was even smarter....he knew the area and knew that right past the 7-11 was a Taco Bel..so much for Power Bars for lunch! We had real food!!!!!!! We both commented to one another though that it seemed as if much of our cockiness had disappeared. We chuckled at that. We turned around after lunch. Going back wasn't so bad until we got to "OUR HOUSE" - that's the first bad hill on the return trip. From then on we just shut up and had to push ourselves. I was ahead of Ryan on the THE HILL but decided not to push it and stopped half way up and waited for him and we both walked up the rest. unfortunately our total mileage was only 48 miles (we had not figured the additional mileage on our first 'detour' - oh well. 48 is still really good for us. We spent the rest of the day (not much of it left since we'd been out for about 7 hours - don't have the exact riding time handy right now) shopping and taking his bike to the bike shop to get the new seat installed so that his legs can have full extension. Then we went to dinner. We did have some experience with what our moods might be like on the real ride though. We had our first "riding fight" so to speak. But as with all the others it resolved quickly and with much love. I said "good night, see you tomorrow" and toodled on home to Fredericksburg to get some sleep before Saturday's ride.

Week 4 - Saturday - 32 Miles
Saturday was supposed to be an "easy" ride of at least 20 miles. Ryan was going to meet me at the 7-11 from the day before because he and Zarre were going to a church function. i was going to park at Shirlington and ride the 5-6 miles to meet them. i was pretty close to being on time. It was a muggy, overcast day with the threat of afternoon thundershowers. So, off we went, again on the W+OD trail. We were pretty happy about the first two downhills until we caught up with one another and realized that we had to ride back up them...that resulted in a big "UGH" from both of us. We went out about 8.5 miles until it started to rain..then turned around. the rain didn't last long on that section. but we were all anxious to get back to his car. i knew the big hill was coming so i took off ahead of Ryan and Zarre. and just kept moving. i made it up the hill without stopping but it was definitely a struggle. then i just kept going. all of a sudden as i realized my odometer said i was almost at the car i realized that i had gone well past Ryan's car. So, i had to turn around and go back to find him, hoping they hadn't left yet. As I got back to where they were parked Ryan was securing the bikes to the car. We talked for awhile (after i told him that i had just then eliminated another in the great list of options for a post-retirement job = cab driver). Finally I decided that it was time for me to head back to the car. About 1 minute after i departed, the rains started coming down heavily. And at a major intersection i had to detour in order to cross..next thing i knew there was Ryan and Zarre driving along beside me asking if i wanted a ride. i said no, i was already soaked. that was no fun at all. and then the drive back to Fredericksburg was the pits. but at least i did 32 miles.

Week 4 - Sunday - 10 miles
Sunday we had decided not to ride. i was tired of going all that way back and forth. But I knew i had to loosen my muscles so i went to the battlefield to do some miles. the head-winds were horrible in certain sections..i even used the granny gear...ugh...but i forced myself to do some hill sets but didn't push it. i did a total of 10.5 miles totalling 90 for the weekend. so, i was pretty happy about that but still discouraged because there's such a long way to go and for many other reasons..the subject of another post. Now, i wont be able to work out til next weekend because I'm off to do some Navy briefs in Florida...but no time for riding. So long til next week...Terrie