Riding vs. Shopping

I can understand my brother's concern with what we are going to eat, but ... come on! While I toil away on my bike, training for this ride, he tells you about going shopping for food ... and he doesn't even leave the store with what we need!!!! Unbelievable!

Can't say much in my own defense though ... today was the first day I've been on the bike since last Saturday. However, I addressed my bike ride this morning a little differently than normal. I did my standard 10.84 mile loop around the "block" (if you haven't seen it before, check out the course by clicking on the button below).

This morning, I decided to increase my speed a little. Each time out on this loop in May, I finished the ride in 47-48 minutes. That puts my mph around high 13s, low 14s. As I've been reading on mapmyride, that indicates a medium effort workout. High effort/intensity begins at 15 mph ... so this morning I wanted to average at least 15 mph. I kept the average over 16 mph for almost 2/3 of the ride, but faded as I returned home into a stiff breeze. Still I was able to keep it above 15 mph ... 15.21 to be exact. Moreover, I shaved nearly 5 minutes off of my previous times ... almost 30 seconds per mile faster. Upon arriving home, I felt like I was about to die, and upon checking my water bottle realized that in my haste I had neglected my hydration (I only had about 5-6 oz.). Little lessons learned ... now it's up to me to remember them ... I bet that there's a sermon illustration in this one somewhere ...