Getting Philosophical

I'm trying to be philosophical right now. Things happen for a reason. First it was the headache of getting the bike. Resolved that faster than I thought was possible. Had a great test ride and signed up for a TT right away to put it and myself to the test.

Had an awesome training ride today. Went out for a ride with mostly strangers, but I knew the ride leader - Carole - and it was just the right type of ride. It was a simple out and back, 45 miles and a fast course - only a couple of small hills - pure big ring route. Little more uphill on the way back than on the way out. Excellent prep for the TT.

Out was a little sketchy. Some of the people didn't know how to ride a paceline. So we were slowing and surging with changeovers at the front. Other than that, I felt good. I was relaxed and turning a good cadence. The one hill that split the group up a little bit was a quarter mile 6%. I eased back a bit to wait for the couple of folks (including my friend Carole!) who came off the back on the hill. Then we did our best to catch up with the rest of the group. When we got close, I went to the front once more to finish up the catch. I got to the group, looked over my shoulder and the others weren't there! Oh well, we were almost to the turnaround.
We stood around by the water and chatted for a bit before heading back.

I decided I'd take the front initially when we got back to the main road, I didn't want someone to set too fast a pace initially after standing around for a while. So I set a comfortable pace. Eventually I passed on the front and was surprised to find that the line was short several riders. The guy on the back of the group was out of his league. He was throwing everything he had into trying to hold pace and couldn't do it, gaps kept opening up. And he was throwing himself around so much that he wasn't keeping his bike steady. When the next rider came off the front, I let him get in behind the squirrel.

Fortunately we soon hit the hill going the other way and that shelled off the squirrel and a few others, bringing the lead group down to five of us. We all knew what to do and the ride wa smooth sailing from there. One of the guys was tired, so his pulls were short, but that's cool. Better that than staying up front and letting the pace drop. The rest of us were feeling pretty good and taking reasonably long pulls.

I decided to dial it back for the last 2 miles, as a short cool down. Everyone else seemed to think that it was a good idea because they dialed it back too. The end result was a Zone 2 average heart rate and a 20.1mph average. Perfect for tomorrow's TT.

So I sit here at home now, when I should be in Harrisburg, chilling before going to dinner and then getting a good night's rest for the TT. This is where I have to get philosophical. My 11 year old car with 182,000+ miles on it decided to develop a coolant leak. I was about 20 miles from home when the low coolant warning lit. I got off the Beltway quickly and stopped an an auto parts store to get a gallon of coolant. The car was dripping coolant. A hose with a leak. The only sensible decision was to return home. So that's what I did.

And I tell myself this happened for a reason. That I'm not meant to race the TT tomorrow. And happily my car didn't over heat and I'll get it fixed on Monday. It's time to start looking for a new car though, can't have this continuing. I'm bummed. I am so ready to race. But hey there's always next weekend. Do I do Cape May or Carlisle?