12 March, 2007

Kicked off

That's the status of the 2007 Dallas Sam's Club MS 150, as of this past Saturday. That's when a parking lot full of the Dallas/Fort Worth area MS 150 riders gathered for a training ride, a barbecue lunch, and some speechifying—the last being more or less optional, if one managed to plan things so that he was still out on the course when it took place. And I did.

What a gorgeous day we had for it, too. Sunny, temperatures ranging across the 70s, and little to no wind. The event was held at Texas Motor Speedway, where we'll end up at the end of the first day of riding on May 5, and the course was a five-mile loop of road that surrounds the speedway. The organizers had arranged for police to be stationed at each of the intersections where those of us who abide by such things as stop signs would have felt obliged to do so. About half the loop was flat, a quarter was a long, gradual climb, and the rest was a slight downhill.

Boring, you say? Maybe. From where I sat (reclined on the seat of my Bacchetta), it was an opportunity to crank out 45 miles at a nice, easy fat-burning pace—not that I took advantage of the opportunity. In the end, the Go Fast part of my brain took over, and I logged a personal best rolling average of 18.5 mph.

At 30 miles, Cliff (one of my MS 150 teammates) and I noticed that many of the riders had called it a day, so fearing that we might miss out on lunch, we agreed to do 10 more miles and call it a day. Still, considering that it was the season's first ride of any decent length, I'd say 40 miles at 18.5 was a success.

Mazda sent me a "Zoom-Zoom" sticker a while back. I'm thinking of putting it on my bike.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I gave my zoomzoom sticker to the boy. I think you should put it on the bike for sure

Bret said...

I'm in the market for a "My bike can kick your honor student's a**" bumper sticker, but "Zoom-Zoom" would definitely work.

That's an impressive bit of work. We had a hefty wind blowing yesterday down in H-Town, so I struggled to a just under 16 mph pace for my 32 miles. Still got some work to do before April 21, obviously.

Foo said...

Susie: I'm still mulling whether I want the additional stickers on my bike, but it sure is tempting.

Bret: Yeah, you might want to stick with Zoom-Zoom. Wouldn't want to give Bubba any more of an excuse to squash you like la cucaracha. And aren't you being just a skosh disingenuous? 16 mph into a headwind is nothing to clear one's nostrils at.

Bret said...

I wish it was disinja... disenga... false humility, but my route is an out and back. Meaning sure, it was tough sledding coming back, but I wasn't complaining the first 16 miles...

Tink said...

That could be your slogan!

Oh wait. You could probably get sued for that hm?

How about... Vroom Vroom? Broom Broom? Doom doom doom doom doooom?

Nevermind.

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