First Real Brick of 2008

My Bro Daniel, who needs a Tri nickname by the way, met me this morning just outside the Tiny Kingdom for a little early morning brickwork. The past two days have been just miserably rainy, and today was supposed to be dry and partly cloudy. Well, they got the cloudy part of that right. It was more along the lines of partly dry and cloudy. Oh, and it was freaking cold. The temperature when the Red Dragon rolled away from mi casa was a balmy 35 degrees. When I pulled into the parking lot, there were no lie, 10 or so other bikers and a larger number of runners getting ready to head out. It was a beautiful sight to see. It's so cool to see a community so into the sport.
Like a real man, Daniel was standing there helmet on without any leggings on. Looking around the parking lot you could see everyone bundled up like snowmen, but not Daniel. He's much tougher than I. At least he had on a thick pair of "hair pants" to help break the wind. Both of us had recognized that neither one of us were in shape enough to kill it on this ride so for the most part we took it easy and just got used to suffering again. So much of endurance has to do with being able to shut your mind off and suffer long enough to make it over a climb. And suffer we would. Both of our odometers are on the blink so there were no records kept of average speed which is probably a good thing.
There's nothing like being back on the bike again. The exhilaration of cresting a hill or spinning through neighborhoods really gets my blood going. I'm really looking forward to the time changing and the after work rides that provide challenging speeds and great camaraderie.
After the 30 mile loop, we had probably the slowest T time ever, but we put on some dry clothes for a 7 mile run. Both of our feet were frozen from the ride so it took a bit of jog hobbling before the feet felt normal again. I was really happy with the way my legs responded to the brick. They felt strong and didn't feel too awkward like they usually do for that first brick of the year. All in all, it was a great morning. Tonight, I'm celebrating with some boys in a little beer tasting event. We're all chipping in some new and different beers for everyone to try out. I'll give a good report if any of them tickle my fancy.
Tail winds....