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Old 01-16-07, 03:42 PM
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SaiKaiTai
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Still some life left in this old dog

It was a glorious day on the coast Saturday... in the 10AM Winter sun, the Pacific just looked special - that still shade of deep azure blue that we only get in the winter.
It was brisk -I don't care what you say, it's been cold here for the past week - week and a half- so I bundled up and headed out. I had a mission.

My wife gave me some nice biking related stuff for Christmas -a pair a Shimano MT31 shoes, a pair of MTB riding shorts and a sweet, shocking yellow, GoreTex biking windbreaker- and I wanted to give them a good try by riding to my bandmate's house and back, about 20 miles. This was to be my 2nd 20 mile ride. I found that it's different riding whenyou can't really feel your feet push against the pedals; I was pushing to hard and burning out a little until I learned to trust my speed and spin a little more. It works. The windbreaker,too, is great... it really does break the wind (no jokes!) and chill while breathing so you don't get all sweaty. And you can't miss me on the road, that's for sure.

I normally ride from my end of town (north) to the southern end every Saturday, a ride of about 12 - 15 miles depending on how much I meander. Usually, I do 15. I tried riding to my friend's house before but it's almost 2 miles all uphill (~2.5%) from the beach back to the valley where he lives. I just wasn't into it last time soI turned around and headed back. I wasn't into it this time either -I'd rather stay in the flats if I have a choice- but I kept playing the "just a little more" game and pushed on. Got my heart up to 165BPM in spots but mostly held a good, steady 140-145 (thanks to my trainer) and before I knew it, I was close enough where I knew I'd make it though the last 900 feet were a 3.5% grade... kicks up right at the end.
Stopped, said hello, ate my Fig Newtons and headed back home. No pain, no nothing... I had more miles in the tank.

It was a glorious day. It gives me hope

N.B. The shoes are great, they really make a difference. Now, I'm actually thinking about cleats.
I didn't stop for pie even though I knew I was doing twenty. I'm trying to shed punds -quite a few- and the pie just seems counter productive. Besides, all I can find in town is apple and I really don't like apple pie much. Maybe come the spring, if they start offering berry pie of some sort....
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