Pork Chops for Dinner Again?

I really need to get back into the swing of writing the reports immediately after my rides. Delaying it out a couple days makes everything foggy and hard to put down.

The morning started out easy enough. After my typical pre-ride breakfast I left a little earlier than I needed to. I took the opportunity to do a few laps around Anthem while I waited for 5:45 to come around. Later in the day I would regret so many laps wishing I’d saved those extra miles for the end.

I finally pulled into the park right on Brayden’s wheel and just spotted Mark heading into the restroom. I knew we were waiting on at least one other rider Jason so I migrated our small group over to our normal waiting table. I was quite surprised when I started seeing cyclists coming out of the wood work. Very rarely do we get this many people riding over from Anthem Hills Park. Moose would tell it that they arrived at St. Rose and Spencer extra early and would have been to the Pebble Marketplace start almost an hour early. He then drug the group up through Anthem for some extra climbing before making their way to the park to ride down. It was quite the pleasant surprise.

I felt pretty good for the first half of the ride. I was doing ok staying up with the lead group until the climb after the cemetery. Typical climbs doing me in again. We regrouped at the library per usual and then made our way through old town before riding through little Italy. Making the climb up through old town was wearing me out, so the climb on Marina was brutal. Once more couldn’t really stick with the other guys. I ended up being one of the last to roll in.

We set off and again and I was pretty much cooked. I was feeling ok but definitely not as strong as I’m accustomed to. I was able to make some decent progress back to Railroad Pass before the long climb up to the UPRR trail. From there it was a nice downhill slide to Acacia Park.

There was a little confusion at the park as some of the group were peeling off to go straight home and not return to Pebble Marketplace. Those who were heading to Pebble didn’t know how to get back. I said I was riding back to Pebble and could lead them back no problem. We parted ways with the home goers at Paseo Verde and Arroyo Grande.

Riding up Wigwam is when the cramps started flaring up. Had a few really good continuous ones on the inner thighs that nearly forced me to stop. Once the did stop I did everything I could to ride chill to prevent them from returning until I reached Pebble. Thankfully the legs cooperated.

Sat down to have a nice coffee break at Starbucks while the legs recharged for the ride home. It also served as a great opportunity to visit with everyone before we all went out separate ways.

Thankfully, the ride home was uneventful. I rolled out with Joy and Jon, but they were both a lot fresher than I and it wasn’t long before I was solo. I made one stop at Sunridge Park to top off a water bottle just to be safe. I also ran into Joy stopped at Anthem Hills Park playing with her phone. She rode with me across Reunion, but once we were on Fieldbrook we said our goodbyes and she pulled away. From there I just slow rolled the rest of the way home. I didn’t have much, if anything, left in the tank.

Overall a really fun ride today despite feeling like garbage for the second half. Really looking forward to getting my fitness back.

New bike fund: $24.63 (+$0.00)
0.28 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
237 vehicles @ 3.4 per mile, 0.9 per minute, Speeds: 27.7 mph (avg), 65.6 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Mostly clear-Sunny, 80°F-95°F, Feels like 79°F-100°F, Humidity 14%-10%, Wind W 2mph-NNE 2mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: -2.9%
Headwind: 43% @ 2-11.4mph
Longest Headwind: 26m 11s
Air Speed: 16mph
Temp: 74.2-98.9°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —