Crack is whack ... and other tales

Our AC is out again. This time it may be a few days. We had to reschedule our usual Saturday long ride to Sunday and instead took an "easy" 40 mile ride out to Great Falls so we could be back home by 10. Easy meant short really - Chad ended up bounding up every hill like it was a race. Mountain Goat.

Sunday we met TJ for a 7 am ride to Sugarloaf. Naturally we got going 20 minutes late. We took it pretty easy on the way out. I got a flat about 1:45 into the ride. Chad and TJ went into "man" mode and I barely had to touch my saddle bag to get the spares out. It was on the tip of my tongue to suggest that I help to get the experience changing the tire, but they had it so under control I kept quiet. Until of course it came to putting the chain back on the front ring. Someone had to touch it and it was me. I wiped off the excess grease on my leg – figured it’d make me look intimidating at the least.

We took a great route and there are tons of hills. And the temps kept getting hotter and hotter. And about 2 hrs into the ride Chad starts off, "Kirsten, don't freak out or anything". And I'm thinking OMG he's turning around (Chad was not enjoying the ride), but as he continues I realize I’m displaying something akin to “plumber butt”. Great. Not much I could do about it at that point other than just draft off the boys. And that’s no fun.

It was uneventful ride for the most part. I just gotta say that TJ was pushing the pace the entire ride. Very impressive. But then I got a little vindication later at the swim. Usually I’m dragging way behind, but for some reason the 2000 meters felt great! TJ ended up with debilitating leg cramps and I cruised through the rest of my swim. I’m not exactly proud that my pace was slow on the bike that I didn’t have to worry about cramping later, but at the time I was glad it wasn’t me.

So that’s it – totals for the weekend: 8 hours of riding, 140 miles and a 2000 meter swim. No running, which pretty much makes this a recovery weekend.