Back in the saddle

While it was damp this morning, it was not actually raining so I headed out to Olympic Park for the 6AM Lidcombe Auburn Cycling Club training ride. I started going late last year and really enjoy them. Its 10k/30 minutes easy out there, 20k/45 minutes hard paceline around the park, then another 10k/30mins easy warm down back home.  Perfect.

Continuing the theme of this week, there were not many people there, so we started with 2 groups, a fast and a slow. The slow group started rolling at a very civilised pace and not pacelining. This was sensible as the road was a bit wet and there was probably a great variety in ability among the 20 or so riders. But after 1 lap a couple of people decided to form a slightly faster group and so off we went. It was still a comfortable pace, but worth getting out of bed for.

When I got home I headed out for a 10 minute run off the bike and took my new IPod for the first time. I have always had a thing against people who run with music. Firstly because you can't talk to them. Last year in the Sydney marathon I ran almost the whole way with a girl wearing headphones and I lamented that if she was not wearing them we could have had a good chat. Also I like my time running to just think and take in the scenery. And I worry that I will get 'addicted' to running with music and then not be able to do without. But I gave it a try and liked it. The album was The Pixies, Trompe le Mond, good running music I discovered. I think I will use the pod for my brick runs because they are usually just slogfests anyway and I could use some distraction and performance enhancement.

Then I rode to work - very slowly. On the way I passed a cyclist sweeping up broken glass with a dustpan brush on Anzac Bridge. Yesterday there was heaps of glass on the cycleway and when I got to work I spent 10 minutes trying to find someone (RTA? City Council?) to call to ask them to do something about it, but in the end I gave up. So thank you man in black - you are my hero of the week. :)