Hill = Fun

We had an awesome A-team ride on Saturday. Our team prez organized a wonderful selection of some steep and/or long grade climbs in Bothell, Woodinville and Kirkland. I was pretty stoked, since riding up hills is one of my pastimes. The ride began at the Bothell Park & Ride (OK, actually at the Lyon's Den coffee shop) which is an 8 mile ride North from our place - it works out to a nice warm up. We covered a number of hills, many of which were at least 15% and some must have had sections of 20%+. I split from the group about 8 miles from the planned ending, intending to ride straight home. But, I saw that I was only 7 miles shy of getting to 60 miles and only 30 minutes shy of a four hour ride time, so I persevered to 62 miles and 3:58 before I pulled in to our home. The average speed belies the hills on the ride - on at least a couple of them I looked down and saw 5.5 mph! Just as I pulled in to the house is started to get really wet, so my timing was good (I was soaked, but only having reached that state minutes earlier).

Emy had her first piano lesson while I was riding, and from all signs, she loved it. When we suggested we try to schedule a 10 minute practice time every day, she said, "Maybe, 12 minutes?" On Sunday she must have played for at least an hour total, and with our help, she worked through the next few lessons in her workbook. It certainly brings back memories of my childhood....

Sunday I got in an easy spin to loosen the legs after the hill ride. I started out pretty sore and slow, but the intention was to take it easy, so I played it by feel. After about 20 minutes the legs loosened up and I had a nice spin. I passed through a freak wall of sleet, wind and rain that lasted just long enough to get me covered with ice pellets and quite damp, but I was prepared with the rain gear this time. Amazingly, the sun was out on the other side of the weather wall, and it stayed nice for the rest of my ride. I was actually "HOT" for the last 10 minutes.

Today is the "run day" in my weekly training plan, which is the same 3 mile flat route every Monday (at least until we get closer to cross season in a short 8 months). Good thing today is for running, since the forecasted snow actually happened on schedule. They even closed Emy's school for the day, which, now that it is nearly noon and the snow is melting, seems like a poor choice. They didn't close the school the last time it snowed/rained, and that time it stayed below freezing, which actually made for treacherous driving conditions. Oh well, they just don't know how to handle WINTER here.