Tuesday, April 15, 2008

No Layers Needed in Leesburg


This past Saturday Robin, Wendy and I trekked over the river to ride with Melanie and her boyfriend, Judd, in Virginia. We met out in Leesburg and watched the Potomac Pedalers roll out for their ride as we finished pumping up our tires and deciding how many layers to wear. In the end the classic “what are you going to wear, no what are you going to wear” debate was unnecessary as it warmed up into a beautiful day and most of us got our first dose of cyclist tan lines for the year (except for Wendy who got a head start in Spain).

Wendy, Melanie, and I share the same coach, Mike Birner, so we all had a similar workout planned: 2-3 hours with a significant amount of time in tempo/threshold zone with some paceline work included. (Poor Robin didn’t know what she was in for.) What Wendy, Robin, and I didn’t know was that Mike had secretly instructed Melanie to “keep us honest” and to make sure that there was “no loafing.”

She did just that while she and Judd led us through some beautiful roads out in Leesburg. There was little to no traffic, some good climbing, beautiful weather, and great company. We all kept the pace up and turned it into a challenging ride. Mike, I promise you there was very little to no loafing...hence the toasty legs at our clinic the next day. :)

After our ride I rushed back to northern VA to attend a wedding and the other girls went home to nap. I must admit that I was very jealous of the napping! We are all looking forward to another ride in Mel’s neck of the woods and hopefully next time we’ll get the rest of the gang out there too!

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