Special Sunday

Lucky for me, this week has been a breeze in cycling terms, if you remember last weeks tremendous triumphs, you would probably agree it was about time for that easy week! Come on, you know all of us  like a relaxed week of coasting miles sometimes, instead of the usual grinding of gears that leaves you coming home jelly legged. Not to mention, this week was a special one for me overall, it was my birthday on Sunday! I turned 16 years old, and I'm loving it. Not to mention it's good for my training, my legs are getting a little bit of an extra work out from smashing the gas pedal (or is it brake?) of my 2001 BMW 525i around town. I got my license Wednesday, and it's changed my life. Dad got me the BMW about a month ago and we've been tweaking it here and there, but soon enough we're going to need to put some bike racks on it, that way I'll be forced to ride my Cannondale more than the BMW.

So I started my Sunday and well lets say I was greeted with my first birthday gift at 6AM... a 60 mile bike ride. Thats right up there with socks on the scale of lame birthday presents, but as a Rolling Resistor I figured it would be a nice birthday challenge. To my surprise it was one of the most exhilarating and fast rides dad and I had ever done. We got a nice warm up of a few miles just us two, but then a huge peloton of riders swept by us like a rolling tumble weed of cyclist and we hopped on their tail. Turns out the jamboree of bikers were doing a 65 mile ride, and heading the same direction we were planning, so we stuck with them till our 30 mile turn around point which arrived in a blink. This isn't no surprise, we averaged 21 mph with the mob, and that was the best thing that could've happened on the ride. The way back was just as smooth, but slightly slower, it was certainly a victory. Catching that peloton was the best birthday surprise that day, next to having an awesome dinner cooked by grandma with the family after our 60 miler.

Other than that my week crawled on, and it wasn't much different then when I was 15. Our Monday night ride got rained out, which is living proof that rain dances can work. Unfortunately they don't work twice in the same week, because the sun was bright and shining for our Thursday night ride. It ended up being a great ride with "Frog", Nick, dad, and I, and we pulled a smooth 26 mile ride from Linton Blvd and back. "Frog" shared his secret to us after the ride; apparently bananas give him a boost of energy, and I believe it. "Frog" didn't have any issues tagging behind my dad after he decided to chase after a group of go hard cyclist, pushing 26 mph on their speedometers! I couldn't even muster up the power to catch up to them, in fact, I'm glad I didn't pull a hammie after sprinting 28 mph in attempt to catch the guys. Hopefully Nick doesn't receive the same affect when eating bananas, or else I'm going to be stuck pulling myself, and that doesn't work well for a Rolling Resistor like me. Maybe I'll start experimenting with the lunch spread at school and see if I can discover a secret energy concoction, to make sure I'm still on par with the rest of the gang. Either that, or I just gotta hit the gym.