I love it when a plan comes together

Last night while in the final mile of my easy paced recovery ride I got caught, passed and sufficiently dropped by a woman who at first glance didn't look like someone who should have dropped me. Not a big deal, I've been dropped by plenty of women so I kept my pace and watched her pedal off.

Tonight I was out "stretching the legs" a bit, and once again got caught, passed and dropped by anther woman. This time I was putting down a pretty nice pace, but from the looks of this woman she meant business. Seeing her pass me, then back of her pace actually made me feel pretty good since I'd guess this woman as a serious racer. I didn't really try to pull her back in, but she sat up to take some drinks and I started pulling back onto her wheel. I got within about 20 feet of her before turning off to Rabbit and watching her motor off into the distance.

Now it was solo time, and I was feeling really good on the bike. The slow gradual climb to Rabbit Mountain wears you down before it kicks you in the teeth right at the end. Until a couple months ago, I would turn around at the parking lot and skip the hard part of the climb.

This year I go right at the climb.

It still hurts, but I make it.

The ride home was swift, as its mainly downhill. I didn't have my Polar heart rate monitor so I don't have real data on my exertion, but I'd gauge it as a Zone 3 ride. I was pushing bigger gears than normal, but I wasn't hurting.

I got home, downloaded the data and I was pretty surprised to see a fat 19.3 average. How did that happen? My fastest average for a ride over and hour has been 18.8, and that was a route with very little climbing. I think I'm really starting to see measurable progress. Last year I celebrated my first 100 mile week. This year I expect to hit 100 miles every single week, even if I'm riding mainly off-road.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta...