A Little Biking Fun

Sunday I met up with some friends to ride the upcoming Shark Sprint bike course.  This course includes a really tough hill and I always like to get in a couple practice runs on the course before the race. 

AJ, Britt, Maja, and Me

We started off at 8AM and it was already pretty warm out.  The first four miles of the course seem like a constant uphill and that is made more difficult since your legs aren't warmed up at all.  We each took our own pace to get started but stayed pretty close together.  By mile 5 we were in a flatter section of the course and all together.  The fun thing about riding with friends is that the conversation and laughter make the time fly by!

We hit the big hill and I got into my granny gear and slowly pedaled my way to the top.  It was a tough ascent and it quickly made me change the route plans for our second tour of the course.  Instead of doing two loops we modified the second loop to cut out the massive hill.  One friend needed a little longer ride so she did the full loop.  We parted ways after a little break full of random topics including the best idea ever for how to turn your bike into art.  AJ and Maja came up with a brilliant idea to frame your bike on the wall so you have beautiful art and storage!

Also during our break, AJ treated us to her prime number song.  Looking back I don't remember why prime numbers were part of the conversation but it was a fun musical treat. 

As we headed back towards our starting point we were discussing more random topics and saw a truck approaching us.  In the road, there was a squirrel between us and the truck.  The poor squirrel proceeded to go crazy with indecision.  It couldn't decide where to go with the truck coming towards it and the three of us coming from the opposite direction.  It was one of those awesome animal moments that you can only witness as an athlete. 

We finished up the ride with a few miles of fast paced riding to have a strong finish.  I originally had wanted to swim after the bike ride but instead we just stood in the lake and cooled off.  The water was cool and the perfect way to finish.  It could only have been better if we had planned ahead and brought some post workout snacks since we were all pretty hungry.