Oh What a Beautiful Morning

I was quite surprised at how sore I was after the 4th of July trail run with the Virtus boys.  Like, "hard to stand up or sit down without groaning" sore.  I used my foam roller a little bit and did some self-massage.  But I was still feeling it even when I agreed via text to meet Walter this morning for a ride.  I figured I wasn't going to feel significantly worse so what the hell.

Woke up to a lovely sunrise shortly before my alarm went off.  I changed my clothes, gathered my things and flipped through the paper for a few minutes before heading off to meet up at Summit Plaza.  We headed out with temps in the low 70's and hammered our way through a fair amount of relatively flat terrain from Holts Summit to New Bloomfield to Guthrie to the Hwy H turnoff (averaging over 14 mph - good for me).  I think I felt like I needed to pee within the first few miles.  Oops.  But the morning was beautiful as we rode past green fields under blue skies.

Then we climbed a lot of hills - some flatter and long, some steep and short and some both.  After one of the most brutal hills, there is a turn where we could turn to do the "extended loop".  This isn't the best time to ask me if I want to do more miles.  I was totally gassed from that nasty hill and still felt like I needed to pee.  I begged off and we headed into Fulton.  The mini mart came up sooner than I had expected and was a welcome relief.  I took my pit stop and grabbed a snack and got back going down the road.

More hills and my average speed kept dropping while my heart rate kept spiking.  But before long, we could see the New Bloomfield exit and knew we were in the home stretch.  Tried to hammer it some more when back on the flats.  Felt bad when we were almost back to Holts Summit and I still felt like I had something in the tank.  But apparently I burned some matches I hadn't realized because the last few hills on Old Hwy 54 kicked my butt.  So glad to see the plaza and my car.

Rest of the day was filled with laundry, buying my son new shoes (size 10 mens for my 12 year old), nap, etc.   Great to start the day with a good workout - and even better when enjoying a beautiful mid-Missouri morning.

YTD:
Swimming = 14,970 yds = 8.5 mi
Biking = 948.7 miles
Running = 115.5 miles