New Beginnings

After I graduated college and starting working for the man, my mom bought me this motivational picture and frame. I used to have it on my desk at my first job, but it has been hidden in a cabinet for the last 7 years or so. After last week, I though of it immediately and went right to its location and pulled it out.

sorry for the bad photo.

The reason it is so relevant is that I quit my job at Honeywell last Monday. I have spent the last 8 years there and now I'm starting a new position on August 1st. It's a little hard to move on but comes at the right time and I'm very excited. 

As I touched on in my last post, I really haven't been riding as much as I would like to. My fitness has suffered as a results, but that's ok. I needed a little down time. Realizing that I'll need my fitness in a few months for our annual trip to Pisgah, I started a pseudo plan to get my legs back. It started on Friday with an invitation from my coworker for a group bike ride. I was reluctant to go because my current level of fitness and group rides are not exactly complementary. I decided to give it a go for two reasons. 1) I really like the dynamic of a group ride and 2) I wanted to get a true feeling for how in or out of shape I was.

I have only done 1 group ride before and it was an all out suffer fest. I tried to hang on to an "A" group with an average of 22-23 mph. It was hard, but I loved it. I got dropped on that ride, so I had that in the back of my mind as I considered doing another one (in worse shape). The ride email said 19/20 mph average which I knew was at my threshold. I could barely hold 17/18 on my solo rides and "my" rule of thumb is +2mph for a group ride with the benefit of drafting. Nevertheless, it was still on the edge of my capabilities, but I showed up at 8:30am anyhow.

The ride started off tame which was great. Sometimes you're sucking wind almost immediately. I was able to get warmed up without too much trouble and was even able to hold a conversation for the first 8 miles. Around mile 10 and on the open road is when I started to crack. We were hitting 21-22 in the straights and I just couldn't hold the wheel of the person in front and was dropped slowly off the back. I considered quitting, but I was able to keep the pack within reach and rejoined at the next stop light. Over the next 10 miles I hung on as best I could, but it wasn't a matter of if, rather only, when I wold be dropped. Around the half way point, I lost contact with the group and my group ride turned into a solo effort from that point forward. I was also the furthest I'd ever ridden from home on roads I wasn't familiar with. Luckily, I had my Garmin to guide me home.

I had been keeping tabs on my physical needs all morning. It was really hot, so I was drinking and taking supplements to keep on top of it. After getting dropped, once I found my route home on my GPS, I stopped for a minute, took another salt tablet and drank the rest of bottle #1 and slogged it back to the car. After downloading the ride, I was very happy with the data. I averaged 18.4mph over 34.5 miles. Not the best ride ever, but not the worst either. with some proper rides over the next few weeks, I should be back in shape in no time. Let's see how that holds up.