Tuesday Buddy Ride

My teammates know me now...when I have "that look", I've had a bad day at work. Come to think of it, lately, when haven't I had a bad day at work? Probably the ones where I don't interact with my coworkers much...

Anyways...I got there, Jane said "go" and I went. I was alone for practically the whole ride, anger and frustration driving my pedals against the head-/cross-winds. I got out to Clark's Gap, stopped, had a bite, and then turned around and drafted behind a guy who passed me going the other way. He turned off in Leesburg, and I kept going, catching up with Jane's mini-group shortly. "If you go fast, you can catch up with the other group!" she called to me as I raced ahead. "I know! And I will!" I shouted back. And I did--not 10 minutes after leaving Jane's group did I catch up with Chris' group (Chris is Jane's husband), which had Mr. Garlic (surprise, surprise =). I darted out ahead of them, too, maintaining 20+mph up from SSS to Rte. 28--my strongest finish there yet!

Statistics:
Bike: Trek 5200
Distance: 29.09mi
Saddle Time: 1h35m46s
Actual Time: 1h40m
Start Time: 6:05PM
End Time: 7:45PM
Start Outside Temp: felt like low 60°'s
End Outside Temp: no change
Max Speed: 33.3mph (pushing it down the hill just past the roller-hockey rink)
Avg Speed (saddle): 18.2mph!!! (I should probably stop being surprised at this, now. I'm fast--get used to it =)
Avg Speed (actual): 17.5mph

Afterwards, we went to this new place in Ashburn called the "Village Grill"--basically a sports restaurant with 20 TVs and 2 big-screens, serving up pretty good food.

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I think, really, my ideal riding-weight is about 170lbs. It's possibly due to muscle mass, though I'm not entirely sure, since I haven't been monitoring my diet all that well. But I can definitely say that I wasn't averaging 18+mph back when I was 160, but then that could also be due to all the training...Dunno!

And I can say that doing something physically strenuous, but low-impact and repetitive (i.e. cycling) and spending time with friends is a great stress reliever. Much better than going to the range, I'll tell you what.