A Perfect Day

I thought I would get in an hour or so of tempo on my road bike this morning. Nothing hard on the knee, just some flat, not climbing spinning. With temps in the low 70's, I was in hoping to have a nice jaunt up to Carlton and back. I got some pictures of the St Louis river where the rapids surge under the bridge, a white water kayaker's delight. I rode a little farther up the trail and stopped ate the way-side rest in Carlton. A couple of guys from the Twin Cities were having a sandwich before resuming their cruise down to Hinckley to meet their wives.

After chatting a bit, they were ready to go and asked if I wanted to ride along with them for a ways. Well, my knee felt perfect, the weather perfect, so I thought I would go another 10 miles before turning back. We took off, a formed a nice pace line, rotating in sync like I haven't done in years. My legs felt better than I can remember, though my turns were a bit shorter than the other 2 guys. They didn't mind and actually commented that I was pretty good for an "old, fat guy". We hit Mahtowa before I called it a day. I'm glad the wind would be at my back for the ride home, because I went a lot farther than I had planned.

I'm glad those guys weren't bike snob, as they were doctors and riding a Cannondale Synapse Carbon and a Specialized S-Works Tarmac. Super-sweet rides. That Tarmace with the Roval wheels in one nasty looking ride, bit the Synapes is pretty cool too. At least my bike has Ultegra and American Classic wheels. I did my pulls with no embarrassment, and had fun like I haven't had in years. Now that the knee is pretty strong again, I'm going to work on my climbing. I kind of wish I had a compact crank on this bike, maybe down the road.