Super Sunday

First off, Annette and Bailey completed the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA in 5:33:13. They ran together the whole way which was great. Not bad considering their only goal was to finish in under 6 hours. I know they had a great time. Wish I could have made it. Here are a few pictures that Annette sent me. I'm sure she will post a bunch on her blog when she gets back.

This was taken during one of the breaks during the race

Annette walking next to the beach

This is Annette's Step Mom, Dad and Aunt who were in California and got to see her finish. Can you see the surf board around her neck?

As for me, I just did a little bike ride. Arrived at Mt Carmel Church at 1:30pm for the standing Cruiser Sunday ride. I was about 10 minutes early but no one was there. I was a little shocked since the weather was almost perfect for riding other than the wind. Wind, who cares about wind? Well, about the time I decided I was going to ride by myself, Duane pulls up on his bike. We start talking routes and then Jeremy rides up. Tried to get James and Russ to ride but I think they wanted to just take it easy for the day. I wanted to do the same but its not very often that we have 63 degree days in early February so I wanted to take advantage of it. My legs were really sore from yesterday but I was hoping for an "easy" ride to act as recovery. So let me repeat one more time, "there are no easy bike rides with our group". If your not being pushed, your pushing someone, that's just the way it is. I guess it works as most of us keep getting faster.

Our route ended up being what I would say is the Mt Tabor/321 loop. We left the church and took 89 to Mt Tabor and headed east. The wind was really getting it and I let the group starting out. I had never ridden with these two guys much so I really didn't know their pace so I just rode moderately. Mt Tabor is always fun as there are a lot of "inclines" which you really feel on the bike. After a few miles Jeremy asked if he could lead for a while and I said sure. Much easier to draft than to pull. He is a pretty strong rider and I had to work to keep up with him. Duane hung in there too. Just before we got to Hwy 31 I heard a loud pop. Sounded sorta like a rock hit my wheel but I had the sneaking suspicion that I had broken a spoke. We stopped at the intersection and sure enough, I had a rear wheel spoke that was broke at the hub. The weird thing is, last time I had a broken spoke, I had stopped at the exact same place when I found it.

I told the guys that I would just have to limp it in. Luckily my rear wheel wasn't wobbling so bad that the brakes were rubbing like last time so I was able to keep going. I was a little leery about doing a lot of speed but I figured I could make it with no problems. In fact, I got back in the lead and pulled all the way onto 321. It seemed like when we were going east we had a little bit of a tail wind and when we turned north, it was like not as much wind. But when we turned on to 321, we hit one of the worst head/crosswinds I have had in a while. It was so bad a couple times I almost ran off the road trying to hold my bike in line.

I guess we had dropped Duane just before the turn and Jeremy dropped me on the next hill. My hill legs are just not back yet, but they are getting there. And 321 has some good hills on it. The wind was bad so we were working extra hard. I looked down and it was all I could do to hold 15mph. Luckily there were downhills to gain some speed and rest.

Made it back to the church and I was amazed to see that I had averaged 16.5 mph. I figured I would have dropped to 15 or less with that wind and a broken spoke. So much for an easy ride. But my legs felt better for doing it, though when I was done, I was really done. Here are the final stats which I am happy with considering it was a very hilly and windy route.

Total Miles - 18.78
Bike Avg Speed - 16.5mph
Calories - 1128
Avg. HR - 160

That gives me total bike miles for the weekend of 45.01 and I burnt right at 2800 calories just on the bike. No wonder I'm tired and hungry! Hope everyone has a great week.