Tuesday night's group ride was pretty awesome with most of the local fast guys that are in town showing up. I needed to blow off some steam so I picked up the pace at mile zero to get things going and after the group caught back on a couple of miles later, I did it again. The pace stayed pretty high after that and I actually fell off the back on the way up Three-Tier Hill coming East out of Finchford. I latched back on coming down the other side though and then we continued on for a few sprints, took one, and then a high pace all the way back to Waterloo which saw the group get strung out and a few pop off the back. I was able to stay with the leaders and tried to kick it up just a bit during each pull. Pretty happy at the end when my legs felt like they had actually done something.

Wednesday was away from the bike as Amy and I opted to participate in a not-too-serious golf tournament for her employer. The tournament was held at the golf course in Hudson, which is a 6-hole course, and we were only allowed to use one club per person. I opted for a 5 Iron and a bit of self-control during my chip shots which seemed to work out well. Putting was handled by a special "putter" at each hole. Hole 1 was a croquet mallet, Hole 2 was a tennis racket, Hole 3 was a water noodle, Hole 4 was a softball bat, Hole 5 was a table tennis paddle, and Hole 6 was a goalie's hockey stick. It started off slow but quickly got a little better with some nice solid drives. The hardest part was chipping with my 5 Iron. I had a sweet drive on the 5th tee followed by an equally sweet 35 foot chip shot to get me a mere 15" from the cup. A slight tap with the table tennis paddle gave me par on that hole. That is my first par of the year by the way which actually had me smiling all night. I have only played twice this year, less then 10 times my whole life, so I was pretty stoked. Hopefully I can get it with a putter next time. Amy seemed to have a good time too and was hitting the ball pretty well by the end. She even mentioned playing "for real" sometime to see if she really likes it. Sweet.

In other news, Rhea is 22 months old today and has been having a blast the last few months. We were walking home a couple of weeks ago at around 9:30pm and she noticed that she had "something" following her. You and I may know that "something" as her shadow but, she had no idea and it scared her. She let out a very loud scream and wanted to be picked up and taken to safety right away. I could barely contain myself from the scene as we calmed her down to explain it and by the time we arrived at home I think that she was okay with it. I'm still not convinced that she understands it fully but, she's doing a good job of living with it for now.

Not quite sure what my next race will be although there are a couple of options left. The Iowa Games road race is on August 16th in Boone, IA and it is a not a santioned race so I would have the opportunity to measure myself against any Cat. 1,2,3 riders that make an appearance to gauge my progress. After that, the Iowa State Crit Championships are in Pella, IA on the 23rd of August and I am planning on making my way there. Might do both of them though, we shall see. After that, cyclocross season starts in these parts and I am getting pretty antsy about that. Time to make my way over to Kat's place to get some barrier jumping practice in. Probably should work on some run-ups a bit too just to be safe.

This entry was posted on 8.07.2008 at 11:48 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.