Monday, March 27, 2006

Frickin' Internet!

WTH can't I get decent internet service at my house?

I've been in this house for almost 3 years now. I've had both Comcast cable internet, as well as SBC DSL. Both SUCK! My service is constantly up and down with Comcast. SBC was able to be reliable, but at only 384K... WTF!!

I Hate you Comcast and SBC!!

Needless to say, my service is out again and I had such an awesome ride on Saturday, I was aching to post it. But alas, I had to wait until this morning to post from work..

So. Saturday I rolled out of Walled Lake with small group (about 8 of us). It was another cold day, and as we got underway the snow started to fall. Pushing the paved roads toward Kensington, I was up front taking turns pulling with another guy, and feeling ok, but not great. The day only got better from there. Once we hit the dirt, I picked it up, hunting for the best line among the brutal washboard (why do I think I can do 12 hours on a fully rigid again??). The speed demon and I pushed this pace around the next bend, and then the first two brutal climbs of the day on Buno rd. These hurt a lot more than they did last week, but may have been just the kick I needed to get my system going. We took a short break at the firestation, then headed toward Kensington. The paved hills around Kensington felt GREAT! I wasn't tearing up them, but I was pushing pretty good, maintaining a good spin, and feeling no pain.

In an attempt to take a break during one of the paved path downhills, I slid back off the seat and rested my chest on my seat. When I attempted to get back up, I found that the chest strap of my camelbak had gotten caught on my seat.. uh ooh... I couldn't tell where it was looped, and must have looked pretty stoopid struggling to get back to an up right position. I kept thinking how silly it was going to look (not to mention painful) when I crashed out of this predicament. Luckily I was able to come to a controlled stop, and unclip and set my foot down. After the laughter or my riding mates subsided I rejoined the group.

Snow gave way to rain, and most of our group decided to cut out the ILRA out and back portion of our ride.. A few of us persevered, but shortly saw the error of our ways, and turned around to try to catch up with the rest of the group, which we did just the other side of Mount Trashmore. I LOVE that climb. Long, gradual, burning, and a great place to catch people.

The rest of the ride was without incident, unless you count all the swamp-ass. I continued to push the pace, as I couldn't believe I hadn't bonked yet, or succumbed to leg burnout.

We capped the day beautifully with some good beer and chips (recovery food of champions) at the home of one of the lovely Dark Horse girls. But for the weather, it was a perfect riding day. We ended up with 31 miles, at about 14.5 mph average.

I attribute my good ride to Old Joe's advice of about 1000 cal 3 hours prior to the ride, then about another 300 cal 30 min before, then nothing till 30 min into the workout. I had eggs, toast with honey, and a banana with some gatorade for breakfast, then a whole cliff bar with some gatorade just prior, then another banana 30 minutes in, and gatorade throughout the ride. Once I add some gel to the mix, I should be in good shape!

Whew.. I'll let that sink in before I get to Sunday.

Warmer days ahead!

soup

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