The Long Summer

It's going to be a long summer.

This weekend marked the start of my Ironman training. The weather called for rain and I was secretly hoping for downpours so that Saturday's ride would be cancelled. Then stupid Gerald said he was riding rain or shone, so I had to hope for sunshine.

Turns out we had great weather, and a large group of maybe 16-18 people. I had no idea what the official course was going to be, I only knew I didn't want hills so I just figured I'd follow the group.

We spread out pretty quickly, and I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be with. I think Steve and Greg were up front; I'm doing Wisconsin with them and thought I'd just stick with them.

Well that was tricky. I kinda followed them doing the catch-up-then-fall-back thing for 10 miles. What killed me was when Hector came up behind me and asked "is Steve just spinning today? He's riding much slower than usual." Swell.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, allergic Ben was busy getting stung by a bee at the time. I ran into Gerald later in the ride, who told me that he was with Ben and not to worry; Gerald hid the body where no one would find it. (Ben is just fine; or at least so claims Gerald.)

The total ride was 30 miles; shorter than I expected but the first half was at a faster pace than I was ready for so I was kind of wiped out. Went home and fell asleep on the couch. Now THAT part of training I can get used to.