Exploration

Mo was up a lot last night, so I wasn't feeling too perky about my ride today. My legs were still a little sore from Thursday's cocktail of riding hard and then cooling off before riding hard some more over and over. Something about that stop and go action really sapped my thighs because it wasn't a long or even very hilly route.

Anyway, so here's to active recovery, I decided to take it easy as far as pace went and let my mind and the bike wander a bit.

I stopped at the Merriam farmer's market briefly. I was hungry, but I didn't see anything that really cried out 'Eat Me!' so I continued on.

I thought maybe some caffeine would help, it usually does and I hadn't had much this morning, so I grabbed a liter of Diet Dew and a bit of beef jerky at a convenience store before crossing the county line into Turner.

At which point I'd kinda been planning to go out Shawnee Drive, a bit of a hill ride I guess.

But when I got to Key Lane, I wondered where it went so I found out. When I got back into JoCo awhile later, I was tempted to go north on Quivira from 49th Terrace: it's a wicked long downhill, I could tell that much. But there was rain in the forecast and I'd told my Mom (who was watching my offspring) I'd be gone about two hours tops. There was no way I could go off that direction, obviously setting myself up for a lot of climbing to pay for that downhill, and make it back in time, so I drifted south to where I could cross I-35 on 67th.

I drove down Quivira after the ride to satisfy my curiosity, and that little leg is going to be part of my Monday ride. Quivira becomes KCK's 63rd Street and it's a monster series of hills, as is Oak Grove, which it connects to. I think I should be recovered enough by then for some harder riding, and some of those hills will test me. It'll hook up well with the Trek Recovery Ride, which I plan to make, also, but as my wind-down after a longer afternoon trip.