A Sunday Ride

To cap off a full week of training and other fun - weddings and celebrations - Sam and I headed out for a long ride and run. Enjoying the luxury of not having the dog at home, we slept in late and then went out to the cute diner for a proper pre-ride breakfast.

The heat and humidity of Saturday gave way to a cool, breezy, cloudy Sunday. Even at noon, I was searching for my rain cape for warmth (why yes, I have gone soft!).

We decided to drive to Washington and do our ride out of my folk's place - making out way through Warren, Cornwall, Cornwall Bridge, Sharon, Falls Village, Canaan, Salisbury, Massachusetts, New York State and then home again.

The plan called for a 4 hour ride followed by a brick run. Well, 3 hours into the ride and still in Salisbury, I broke the news to Sam. "Um, babes? I kinda mis-calculated the distance of this ride...this isn't realy my 4-hour loop - it's a bit longer."

'No worries,' he says, ' About how much longer is it?'

'Well, um, er, about an hour ... maybe 2?" I replied.

Boyfriend extraordinaire didn't freak out - he did a food check, then got in his drops and proceeded to pull me home at a pace of over 20 mph. Well, that is until we got to the climb on Rte 45 from Cornwall up to Warren. 6k and a an average grade of nearly 14%. Yup, hurts so good.

I had orders to keep my cadence at 90 on the flats and 70-80on the climbs. So I just tootled right along. Sam, blasted away from me right at the start of the climb and as I saw him disappear up the road, all I could feel were pride and admiration. He put a good 1/4 mile or so gap into me and after completing the uphill time trial, pedaled down to me and did the last crest again...and then sprinted past me for the town line win.

I would have objected, but I was ready to die from climbing while he was smiling and barely breathing hard. Yes, Cat 3's out there - you better watch out for Sam at Housy Hills this year b/c he is going to dominate.

we pulled into the driveway 4 hours and 40 minutes later with a total trip distance of a little over 92 miles. Hard, mountainous miles. Thank gawd Sam pulled me butt around all day.

Strapping on the shoes and grabbing the dog, I headed out for the brick run in Steep Rock preserve where Sam met us a while later.

Homemade fajitas, a bottle of Chimay ale and a bit of leftover chocolate mousse cake made for a perfect end to a perfect [Sun]day!