Well, in the face of how important rest is....I just walked in the door from a century! Boy it'll be easy to justify a couple of rest days after that.....I hooked up with about 10 "young stud riders" and joined their paceline (when I was at mile 60 already and they were at mile 15!). OK, the next part of the story is for old guys only.....we all started up this 7-11% long grade and everyone broke apart and became independants. I just stood on it and hammered. Soon young guys were dropping back! That made me feel stronger so I kept it up and finished third at the top. The first guy (amazing and about 155 lbs) as I rode up said,"who the hell are you? You are an animal!" OK I feel comfortable bragging here....it was so fun for an old guy to dust most of the so called big dogs. Suddenly I was accepted by the "homeboys". Anyways, I'm at home now and dying! Raydog