I love it when a plan comes together. I was hoping the weather would cooperate, and allow me to ride my bike outside.  I had rearranged my schedule, specifically for this eventuality, and it worked. I was able to ride my bike outside today, and ended up doing over seventy miles.

When I woke up this morning, I saw bright blue skies outside. I quickly grabbed my phone to check the temperature. It said 35’F with a real feel of 42’F.  This sounds cold, but I knew that by this afternoon, the temperature would be fine to ride outside.

Just after lunch, I drove with my bike to North Park.  It was in the high 50’s ‘F… perfect.  For my first ride outside this year, I chose to just ride around the lake.  This course gets repetitive, but it is safe, due to the presence of a bike lane all the way around.

I did try something new today.  I got to use my Garmin Varia radar for the very first time.  It was a birthday present from last year.  I absolutely love it.  It was super easy to set up and is so intuitive to use.  I don’t think it missed a single car or motorcycle coming at me from behind.  It really helps to know exactly when the car is getting alongside you.  It is such a cool piece of safety equipment.  I highly recommend it.

My ride was just short of the planned four hours.  I did cover however seventy miles, and that included thirty minutes of hard effort.  My legs were tired after that hard interval, so I cut my ride short by a few minutes.  It was still, by far, my longest ride since Ironman Chattanooga last year.