Another day...

...another 80k. Three more hours, very windy hours, in the saddle today. Base fitness is obviously there, along with tempo fitness. The true, heart in the throat fitness hasn't shown itself quite yet. My brother and I chased a 400 meter gap today at 55+ kmh and it really hurt. I could feel yesterday's ride in my legs and the old HR wasn't happy about being spiked at 180. Of course, it was quite a bit colder today (50-ish) and the big diesel has trouble getting to temp below about 60. Unless it's raining and 50...then, I'll leave you in the country even if it buries me for the rest of the day.

It was a good ride all in all. We started with 5 and ended with 4. The Greenville Training Series is in full swing, so the majority of the group was gone. We lost The Velvet Hammer about an hour in. It seems he tweaked his back and is a bit crippled up. I feel his pain...literally and figuratively.
It was really windy today, so speed hovered around 30-32 kmh. I didn't feel like going much faster anyway.
I had a close call with the ground at the end of the ride too. I stood to pedal, as one does occasionally, and my chain slipped. I came close to eating shit no more than 10 minutes from home. If you want to know how close, my left nipple hit my left shifter. It was either my enormous, Schwartzenegger-like, upper body strength or the hands of the Cycling Gods that kept me upright. I'd like to think it was the former, but it was more like the latter...thank you Il Pirata.

I installed new motion lights on the front of the house this afternoon. When they click on, it looks like a prison yard. It's just another tool of oppression by the man...