let's step this up a notch

the team and some friends went for a good ol' road training ride on sunday and it turned out to be a beautiful day to go for a ride. we hit up the council grove loop and it ended up being around a 75 mile ride in which i came to realize that i wasn't quite ready for, or my legs weren't quite ready for anyway. on the way to council grove which is just around 41 miles my legs were doing great, but then after chowing on some gas station pizza and hot chocolate (not the best nutrition choice) my legs blew up and i rode by myself for 20 miles until we reached americus. then i happened to catch up with eric benjamin (the adventure monkey) and the look on his face was priceless.

he looks at me and says "where did you come from" and i'm like, "man i've been behind you for the last 20 miles." needless to say, i got him pumped back up for the Dirty Kanza 200 that he's entering in this year, and this has gotten me on the trainer this week in hopes to not get dropped from the main group on this sunday's shop ride. but the ride was beautiful with the sunshine and we all had great company. i can't wait for the next one on sunday, its always motivating to have a group of people to go out with, i hope i never take it for granted and i know that we're blessed in this community.

if you want the other side of the story from this weekend's ride hop over to eric's blog site www.theadventuremonkey.com
it's great stuff, and he also takes sweet pictures like the one of me and seacat below.


the adventure monkey and i had a great rest of the ride into emporia, and he really kept me motivated to get home and take a hot shower and see my beautiful wife who was kind enough to make some spaghetti for me to munch on after stumbling into the kitchen. he said something along the effect of "man, taking a hot shower after a long ride is almost like ecstasy for me" and "everything always taste like it's amazing after a ride like this. my wife made stew one time after a long ride in the flint hills and i don't even like stew, but i was like, this is the best food i've ever had."

i totally agree man food, sleep, conversations, my attitude, my opinion on things...just everything seems better after riding the bicycle...even if your legs blow into a million pieces while you're out there. here's to not blowing up my legs this sunday, i'll let everyone know how it goes on monday!

-bobby