50mi ride/3 mi run It was just yesterday. It was based on experience, from February ’til now. And it came true! I said while running how there seems to be a pattern of weather for weekend workouts. And it wasn’t isolated, I told a few people, got a few laughs, and kept going. The Saturday run, hot, humid and still, was followed by a windy Sunday. The same wind we’ve had for 6 months, from the Southeast, making your ride home from however far north you rode feel like a climb.
I came to Loggerhead park at 6:30am, already queueing up were Chris and Lilia, Jerry K. Howard and waiting to roll already were Benjamina and her boyfriend. We left as a group just after 6:30 – I wanted to ride with people but not be involved with drafting, so I could do that with this small group. We went slowly up to the lighthouse, then the pace increased. I let the group go ahead, Ben’s boyfriend stayed back riding next to me and we talked. He is a PB County Sheriff, was the person that lost part of his finger on the steel grates of the Intracoastal bridge and frowned on the Jupiter Island police for rigidly enforcing bikers rolling through the new stop signs. At Bridge Rd, a brief pause and then forward to the north. I stayed behind again, keeping the pace but keeping more than the legal draft differential between the end of the group and my front wheel. I like that. We continued up the RR tracks on Old Dixie, I remained close but not on the paceline. Chris Drew’s cyclocomputer flopped off crossing the tracks at the VFW hall, he found it in the grass. Once the others kept going, I rode with Ben’s boyfriend fast to catch Howard who was way up the rode. That blast was nice, the group came together in Port Salerno and I pulled to Sandsprit Park.
A stop there included stories about the squirrel that got cut up in the front wheel of a girl’s bike yesterday, making the rounds on Facebook with Dale Ruth’s help. I told everyone about Lanae’s bike and the pictures we took of the squirrel investigating her equipment bag while we were right there. The animals in that park are very used to people feeding them or stealing the food, so anything’s possible at that stop. Riding home was of course, the prophecy fulfilled, against the wind. We rode through Port Salerno, I pulled the RR tracks section that I like, then allowed others to lead while I kept pace but stayed back. ON Jupiter Island, we passed and brought in two roadie riders. I gladly let them pull and lead, I wasn’t for going all this way to start drafting now. I did another pull and drifted back, soon our group started breaking up. Chris led those two guys into the crosswind section by Blowing Rocks Preserve, I think that broke them. I caught and passed them, then found Chris before I reached the drawbridge. An easy low-traffic crossing and we were single file down beach road to home. John was waiting there for me, it was very hot but we ran 3.1 miles to J-Town and around the duck pond. Good day to train for, well, whatever I’m doing next. I think I’m tapped on triathlons this year, all this to build legs and endurance for TNF Atlanta perhaps!
drun4fun 