[strava id=”39558643″]

Finally getting over my illness. No more meds, no more stuffy nose and no more body aches. Plus, the weather has improved. Gone are the sub-freezing temps and fog. Today was to be mostly sunny and approaching 50 degrees. Time to ride the bike.

I broke out the Colnago CT2 for todays ride. It has been a long while since that bike got out to play and it really had fun today. My training plan called for an easy two hour ride so I hooked up with the Salem Bicycle Club. We headed east and I hung back with the slower group. But then the quicker group, including my wife, got a stop light ahead of me so I picked up the pace to bridge up to them. For ten minutes I threw out the window the “easy” portion of the training ride and brought up my average heart rate to 144 bpm and average power to 197 watts. Once I caught them, I backed off for the rest of the day.

We turned to the south on Howell Prairie Road and then rode into the fog, It was thick and did not look like it was going to burn off anytime soon. We climbed up the hill to above Maclay and the fog persisted. I continued on to Shaw and saw that it was time for me to return. I left the group and headed back down the hill to Salem and then to home.