59 days

Rode a light workout before lunch, that helped the legs recover from yesterday.

Now I need to find a place in Austin that has a flat 3 mile stretch I can measure to do my fitness test. The fitness test is needed in the training program to help decide what I can realistically accomplish in training. The problem is finding 3 miles of FLAT roads anywhere near here (!) Especially ones without traffic. I guess I'll ask other riders where they go.

If I can finish 3 miles in less than 10 minutes, then I am a "beginner intermediate". No big shakes one way or the other (beginner vs. advanced), but it helps put limits on how much I can try to do without overdoing it and hurting myself. The part that's a little scary is the test procedure. An excerpt from Lance's training guide:

Step six: Feel the burn. Settle into a steady rhythm of breathing. From here on, it's going to hurt. If it isn't hard and painful at this point, you need to pedal harder and faster.

Hmmmmm...

So I got an email today that the MS 150 has closed it's registration at 13,000 cyclists. Holy Cow! That's a lot of people. Imagine this: if each bike were 5 feet long and they were set nose-to-tail, tire-to-tire, that line of bicycles would be over 12 miles long. This is a record for the fastest registration of cyclists, fastest in 21 years.

Tomorrow I get to see the bike put together. Should be pretty cool. I think.

Off to bed for that needed rest. Goodnight boys!