Sunday ride to Poolesville

73 miles; or, let's round up to 75 to make me feel better

As I mentioned, the weather was forecast to be iffy Sunday. We had planned to meet TJ at 7:30; or rather, TJ was planning to get to our house shortly before 7:30 for clip-in at 7:30. At 7:25 TJ arrives and Chad is still in bed. Not sure he wants to get up. I cajole, nag and guilt him into joining us; reminding him we can turn around or hop into a coffee shop if the weather takes a bad turn. The first 20 miles or so are dotted with perfect little coffee shops; it might actually be nice for once to pop into one and skip the rest of the ride. But I digress. Finally we get rolling at 8:15. TJ has come to expect that when we schedule clip-in for 7:30, realistically that means 7:45. So this was late even by Lewis standards. (Sorry to all the Lewis' reading this. I've just made a sweeping statement that may be unfair.)

So, in the end we rolled. And rolled. Or so it seemed. We crossed paths with a woman we see riding and running on almost every outing. I passed her on a down hill and she quickly passed me back. Then Chad passed both of us and she grabbed his wheel and I didn't take hers. Pretty soon Chad was out of sight and I was reeling the woman back in. But then I decided to take the Mountain Gate hill, which adds a mile and a few minutes to the route. I could see TJ somewhere behind me but decided to just keep plugging away. So far I was feeling ok. We all met up at BP, where Chad looked extremely refreshed and made a weak threat about turning around. We decided to take River Road and ended up rolling through a light shower. It actually felt refreshing and it was nice to have more water than grit flying into my face from Chad's wheel. But then something happened and my legs turned to stone and riding up those hills became a chore. After the second hill TJ made a break for it and all of the sudden I was chasing.

We made it to Poolesville - finally. I had barely finished one water bottle in the first 2 hours and 36 miles of riding. We agreed to meet up again at the BP. Again, I lagged the entire way, seeing TJ just ahead. Chad had long ago vanished into the horizon. At BP I decided 1/3 bottle of Infinite was enough to get me back and I didn't wait for the boys to refill; I rolled knowing they would catch me. I took it pretty easy the next several miles; let my legs rest a little and enjoy the open road - no one to chase and no pressure.

We got hit by another rain shower as we were coming through Falls Road. This time we got soaked, but it felt refreshing. My legs were still revolting though I was doing my best to stay with Chad and TJ as we came through Georgetown, Whitehurst Freeway and Independence Ave. At some point Chad said something about making me take tomorrow as a rest day; I'm not a big fan of being coached, especially by my husband. So when he tried to say something else (about what I forget now) I think my exact words were, "I think you should ride ahead of me". No, not very nice, but lucky for me he took it in stride and didn't offer anymore advice.

My total ride time was 4:03, not too far off our previous efforts at riding the Poolesville route (just under 4 hours). That made me feel good until I learned Chad's ride time yesterday was 3 hrs 40 min. Just when I think I haven't lost as much as it feels, I realize Chad has improved so much. I'm really proud of him. He has been working really hard on his nutrition and speed and it shows. He's now the most aerodynimic he's been since starting triathlon. (HS weight does not count here.) And he's strong - running, biking and swimming like never before. I could learn a lot from him. I'll have to work on my ability to take advice.