Recovery? Maybe not...

Monday
My scheduled ride was a 1 hour recovery ride. I did the ride, but tacked on a group ride afterwards. It was a lot of fun. I used to be able to do this ride every Monday but lately, my work schedule has not allowed this. I was off Monday, so I got to take part in the ride. I was anxious to see how my training would help because I usually battle with a couple of the guys on the 2 climbs. I faired very well. I stayed right on the wheel of the youngest rider for the first climb and was not overly exerting myself. I felt really strong and relaxed. I gapped him about half way up the second climb. I was completely surprised. He sprinted and got me by a bike length and a half at the line. He used to get me by a huge gap on this climb. At the top he was bent over his handlebars gasping for air. I was winded, but not nearly as bad as in the past. I usually want to toss my cookies at this point of the ride. Either the training is helping or he was having a bad day. I hope it is the training and he had to push harder. He did give out on the descent. We had a nice rotating pace line going (6 riders) and he was slow pulling through each rotation. He finally sat one out and the next time through I asked if he was tired. He said yes and we singled up the pace line. I ended up with 42 miles for the afternoon and still did not push too hard. I’m not sure I really recovered though…
On a lighter note, one of the guys said he uses my blog to help him fall asleep at night. He said reading it just makes him tired.