Thursday, October 06, 2016

I Don't Mind Some Slight Disorder...


Okay, well yesterday was pretty nice. On Tuesday after work, I planted the 12 or so Hostas a friend of mine gave us over the weekend and John cleaned all of the gutters before a big rain that night and yesterday morning.

The rain prevented me from running, but I made up for that later. After the storms, the afternoon was gorgeous and I got to sit and read at my little waterfall between the building where I work and Halsey Gym. I love it, because I get to hear the piano music for the ballet classes or the hip hop for the more modern dance classes coming out of Halsey Gym and from where I'm sitting, almost no one can see me. My favorite situation.


After work, John and I headed to Cedar Rapids for my first Cyclocross practice of the year. After this weekend when I died on a 22 mile gravel bike ride, I was worried about what kind of shape I was in.

My goal was to try and ride 45 minutes without stopping (the average length of a race) and to try to get at least 10 miles in.

They had a route all marked-off with little markers, so we could follow and work on skills and speed or ride with other people to work on passing. There were probably about 15 people who showed up which was great. Two of us were women. I'd love to get those numbers up, but I know from many years of experience that it's hard to do.

Anyway, I rode the course and used my Map My Run app to measure it out and time it. Each lap was a little over a mile. I started out slowly and kept trying to increase my speed every lap. I worked on going up the hills staying on my saddle one time and the next time, I got up off my saddle and did standing climbs. I also worked on taking different lines and cornering faster and faster. I had a blast AND I rode for an hour and 10 minutes without stopping and did a little over 12 miles. Next time, I'll have to work on dismounting and remounting and getting my speed up.


Oh, yeah. I also want wish John a happy 6 year anniversary of recovering from getting hit by the guy who bent down to pick up the thing he dropped in his F-150 pick-up and hit John straight on without braking. Even though he still suffers some back pain, John is kicking so much ass every day.


After we got done riding, a guy brought out some good beer and some of us hung-out and talked about riding and races we wanted to do. It was very nice.


Then John and I drove off into the sunset through Cedar Rapids, a town that narrowly escaped a flood last week.

Tonight? John goes to his mom's for dinner and I get some alone time at home to read and harass and get harassed by cats. I can't wait.

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