Catch up time

I know, I know, I've been either lazy or busy since my last post. I'll let ya'll who read this decide which it's been. This past Friday I just went for an easy ride & just enjoyed the weather on the ride. On Saturday it was the rolling to Roberta ride. I headed to The Bike Store and arrived there about 9:30 am & Bill told me that the group left about 25 minutes earlier. I headed out on my way trying to see if I could catch the group that left. I hit Byron & decided that it probably would be easier to catch them if I didn't ride down Juniper Creek Rd & just head out on 42. I just put it in cruise control until I hit the hillier sections of the ride, then put in some hard efforts. I hit the Knoxville Store & was surprised to see that no riders were there yet. I got me some water & something to snack on & waited for a bit to see if anyone showed up. About 5 minutes later the group that was doing the ride showed up. I actually beat them to the store. I asked them what kind of pace they were going to do on the way back & they said they were going to be going much slower than I probably wanted to ride. I chatted a bit with them, then headed on my way back. I put it in the big ring after the first climb & kept up a nice steady pace. I turned on Walton Rd & headed to Ft. Valley. My legs were feeling pretty good even with all the climbing. I hit Ft. Valley & headed on 341 towards Perry. I was riding at a good pace & kept it steady. I hit Perry & needed to make a store stop to visit the bathroom. I finished there & headed back home. I managed to do 78 miles in just a bit over 4 hours on the bike. I felt good the entire ride & managed to average 19.5 mph. On Sunday I did a recovery ride with Eddie. We had great weather & he told me about the Pine Mt Challenge ride they did on Saturday. After hearing about it, I'm glad I chose not to go. He said it was a hard ride & everyone suffered in some way. We had a nice recovery ride & a nice chat while riding. Monday I started doing intervals. I did 15 seconds hard with 2 minutes recovery in between them. I did about 15 sets of intervals & I was feeling it by the time I got home. Today it was a beautiful day & I headed out for a ride. I did the same loop I did with Eddie, but it was in reverse. My legs felt good after warming up which was a surprise to me after yesterday's ride. I really pushed it when I had the wind at my back. I was able to do 36 miles in 1:46:00 & averaged 20.4 mph for the ride. I'm looking foward to an easy ride tomorrow. On Saturday I'm heading up north of here to ride with a new group of guys. I don't know what to expect, but it should be fun. I'll let everyone know how things go. Stay tuned for further updates........