Perfect weather for the fastest double digit ride

I am so loving these cooler temperatures, if only it would stay this way until next Spring. Wouldn't that be nice?

Well last night I was able to meet up at the bike shop for their Tuesday evening group ride. The last 2 weeks I was unable to make it. Due to the sun setting earlier in the evenings, they changed the start time from 7pm to 6pm. I brought my cycling clothes with me to work so that all I had to do was change at the office and head straight to the shop. With the crazy rush hour traffic going home, there was no way I would have had enough time to go home & change. I got there at 5:30 which left me plenty of time to eat my banana & to pump air into my bike tires.

notice the guys lovely pink mustache socks 

My goal for the ride was to try and stay in the front of the pack or at least the middle section. The first few miles I was managing a decent pace but I knew I had to pick it up just before the half way point (7.5 miles). The route takes you around the Manassas Airport and everytime we get there I always seem to fall to the back of the pack. This is because there is a very, very slight elevation gain that stretches for about a mile. It doesn't appear that you are going up "hill" because it looks totally flat, but you will definitely feel it. Ask your legs -haha! I started to feel myself falling back & I knew I had to pick up the pace, Holy cow I was dying!! but I managed to stay up with the guys.

on our way to the airport 

this is the stretch where I usually fall behind but not this time

We ended the ride just after 7pm when the sun was going down. My watch showed a little over 14 miles & my average speed was 16.4 mph. I was totally doing the happy dance!!! That is the fastest I've averaged in a double digit distance ride.

On the exercise front, things have been going fairly well. I ran 2 miles on the treadmiill on Monday and another 2 miles this afternoon.

 

I had the office gym all to myself so I was able to take a post run picture without looking like a dork. But the picture turned out quite blurry because I was so paranoid that someone would walk in on me while taking it- LOL