Glorious gloriousness

Man, what a perfect day, and it's not even two o' clock, yet!

My thermometer reads 42, the sun is out, and I got 43 miles in before noon. Spring is coming, folks. Just hang on a couple more weeks. Friday and Saturday might be warm enough get us past the tipping point. Although if there is snow again in April, the noose is coming back out of the storage closet.

This afternoon gets even better. My bike racing team, XXX Racing - AthletiCo, has been invited to speak at the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting at City Hall this afternoon. I'll be presenting from a brief powerpoint show and taking questions, positioning us as a resource for the Mayor's Bike 2015 plan.

After that, I'm booked at AthletiCo - XXX's title sponsor - for my first massage there in over a year. I know, I know. Funds have been tight lately, but my recent frugality is now allowing some of those needed luxuries.

It will feel good, and needed, after that ride today. Mark and I rolled out at 9:45 and turned north onto Damen into about a 15 mile an hour headwind. Tempo was the prescribed workout today, for me anyways. Once we got to Evanston, I gave it the gas and Mark was just along for the ride as I drooled all over my chin and jacket at 87 - 90% effort into that wind.

Trying to get my heartrate up was tough, however. Maybe it was the cold? It took forever to get it into the tempo zone, but my watts were there. It was like ripping off a scab: I finally got out of the saddle and rocked the bike through some bigger watts up one of the small Sheridan rollers, and then it was up and there to stay.

We turned around shortly before HP since even there we'd get more ride time than I had scheduled today. We filled our sails with that tailwind and roared back to Chicago.

For the geeks: just over 2,000kj for 2hrs, 27 minutes, including rolling in and out of the city in the small ring. Good work.

Man, I love days like this!