Rude Awakening

Today my training called for a "2 a Day", consisting of a 1.5 hr ride in the morning and one of Clark's favorites, the "45 min Active Recovery" spin in the afternoon. I'm hoping for a "45 min Inactive Recovery" just once. In 37 years & 3 days, the phrase "2 a day" has never been uttered to me or by me in an athletic way. The training also includes " 2 sets of 4 x 1 min. on - 2 min. off @ Zone 5". I would take the time to try and explain this to everyone, but I received a score of 16 on the math section of my ACT. I'm being completely honest when I say that I was not excited about today. Not because of the training, but because I knew it would require a 5:30 am ride. Over the past few months, my body clock has grown accustomed to not having to wake up at 4:45 and with the recent time change I knew it would be hell. But I had one thing going for me, actually against me, my riding partner.

When Douche uttered the words, "be at my house @ 5:30" I cringed. I immediately regretted even mentioning to him that I had to do this early morning ride. This would be my first semi-aggressive ride since the surgery 8 weeks ago. The remainder of the evening my brain was on overload. What route would we take, how would the leg hold up & was I prepared for the constant harassment that could be handed out? At 11:35 pm, after I knew he was asleep, I sent him a text giving some excuse about a screaming child and I wouldn't make it. Sending that message did not give me the sense of comfort I was hoping for, it made me feel worse. So at 12:11 am, I sent another text saying "I'll be there".

At 4:45 am the alarm blared like a foghorn. I jumped, rather I was kicked out of the bed by Kimberly. Getting dressed in the dark for the first time in months, I felt like a child tying his shoes for only the third time. I somehow got it together and headed outside to load up. While putting air into my tires, it happened, like clockwork. The 5:00 am phone call. I was tempted to just let it ring, but that is like throwing water onto a grease fire. " Where are you"? Now I wasn't supposed to be there for another 30 minutes. I looked over at the back door as if it was calling me back inside.

We started the ride shortly after 5:30. The first thing I noticed were the hurricane force winds that were blowing. We got out of the neighborhood and decided we would do the Peddler route. This is a 20 mile route that goes from Highland to Germantown and back. I had reminded him that I was out of shape and just off surgery, so no crazy antics or speed. This, as pretty much everything I have ever said to him, when in one ear and out the other. Once on Quince, the speed ramped up quickly. I was okay with it until we had to climb the hill over 240. It was like I had a parachute on my back. My legs and chest burned and I was weazing like a had a Dorito stuck in my throat. The next few miles went by well, but the wind was still brutal. To get some relief, we rode Germantown road from the tracks to Shelby Farms. It was all tail wind and it was perfect. We cut through Shelby Farms and then across Walnut Grove. We intended to get onto the Greenway, but we missed the turn and had to ride Farm road up to the prison to get on. This was a major disaster. We pissed off probably 10 cars . I know this because as they passed they would gun their cars like they were setting a quarter mile speed at Memphis Motor Sports Park. Holding down their horns was also another indication.

This was my first experience on the Greenway. We rode it from Shelby Farms to Graham. It was awesome. The pavement is perfectly smooth and the trees block the wind. I was surprised how good I felt at this point of the ride. I was even more surprised at the low level of harassment I received. To be honest, I kinda missed it, but it's early in the season.

We rode around 25-27 miles at a pretty good pace. Total ride time was 1.5 hrs. I spent most of the ride sucking wheel, but I didn't care. It just felt great to be back out spinning the pedals at a good pace.



And this was my view.