lying legs

note to self: never say to dan, "hey! let's paceline up that hill south of of the lake! my legs are feeling pretty good." that hill is not very steep, but it is very long and no matter how good your legs feel, dan will thrash them. duly noted.



before the hill, things were pretty calm. we rode past lazy brandon's house. he was still in bed, all snug and warm no doubt. we were freezing! ok, maybe not quite freezing, but 63 degrees feels rather chilly after the heat we've been experiencing. just last week there was a day where it was 81 degrees at 6:00!



anyway, we left brandon to his dreams and rode north. after a mile or two, we figured out the wind was at our backs, so we turned on 30th and rode over to highway 61 to head south toward the lake. there was no traffic on 61. very unusual. i rode on the highway almost the entire way into town. not one car passed us.



we had to stop at the light at 54. grrrr! i hate stop lights.



we took 54 east to the "wildlife and parks" turn off. heading south on this road is when i spoke the fateful paceline words mentioned above. dan smiled. we rode a little harder to the base of the hill and then i slotted in behind dan.



i should've stayed where i was.



i came around dan hard to take my turn. i blew up while leading out. dan said later that he had a hard time passing me. i don't believe him. he passed me and just kept going. i was gapped by 10 meters in no time. i could barely feel the draft. then it (and it's creator) was gone.



i backed off the accelerator after dan was gone. there was nothing else to do. i had to get my heartrate back under control. i do not get paid to ride. this is not the hill worth dying on. i watched dan climb. i limped along behind until he and then i turned around and headed back down.



down. such a lovely word. downhill. ahhhh. tailwind. beautiful.



i drafted off dan on the way down the hill and around the corner by the lake. from the stop signs on we rode side by side. we climbed up and over the hill past country club rode and ended up at 281. we headed north to sixth and headed east toward home.



a bit of conversation settled us on our course. we'd turn on rochester and hit the light east of the hospital. i had the better line hitting rochester, so i hit the afterburners and raced toward the stop sign on the north side of the tennis courts. i wanted to beat dan in the sprint. it's never going to happen. he caught me a quarter of a block before the red octogon. at least i made him work a bit.



we made the light before it turned red and cruised home. what a fun (and painful) workout. brandon better wake up tomorrow! (21.28 @ 18.1mph)