We’re finally into some decent weather around here – about a month late. Normally, my first day cutting the grass is around the middle of April. This year, I just did the first swipe Saturday and Sunday. This has put a major damper on cycling – I don’t know anyone who is ahead in their mileage this year.
With that being said, my wife and I had an awesome morning on the tandem Sunday. The wind was horrible, though not because it was all that strong. In the single-digits (mph), the wind was quite livable. It got tricky in the direction. East-southeast switching to south-southeast means we’re stuck for places to ride. The traffic is too ridiculous heading east, so a push home is out of the question. South worked, though, so that’s what we went for… even if that meant bucking a bit of a crossing headwind on the way home.
We rolled out at 8 am to let it warm up a little (much needed, it was a little cold to start the morning) but quickly got into a nice groove.
And that says a lot about where my wife and I are at the moment. Saturday was a bit of a train wreck as we struggled with the group to get a decent rhythm going and our overall pace at the end of the ride showed it. Sunday was a complete turnaround, though. We had it going from the beginning and actually hit a section of road that’s normally fast in the upper 20s at the low 30s (mph – or 52-ish km/h). We were well over the 25-mph village speed limit and were actually brake-checked by a driver in a truck who’d just passed us. Thank God for good brakes.
We had a pile of tailwind miles next and we simply cruised. It had turned into one of those perfect days where we both worked perfectly together. In contrast to the day before, there were only a couple of times I had to pedal through my wife, and in a few instances she kicked it so hard on hills, I had to feather the brakes to keep from riding into another of the tandems’ back wheel.
We stopped at our normal gas station and shed some clothing. It had warmed up beautifully. I downed a gel and refilled my water bottle. With 15 miles to go, I didn’t want to risk bonking out because we were rocking it.
The final 14 miles of the 47-mile loop were fantastic. I anticipated we’d struggle a little as our max is usually around 40 miles but that never happened. I’d say my butt wasn’t too thrilled about the additional miles, but other than that the finish was great. We pulled into the driveway with an 18.1-mph average for the 47-1/3 miles. Pretty good, considering.
Yesterday was a day off and I’m attending a funeral for my wife’s aunt. We may or may not get a ride in. With good weather settled in for the foreseeable future, I can live with it however it turns out.
Fit Recovery 
Good