Well, the soccer season is progressing, and we have so many pairs of shin guards that I cannot believe it. However, can we find a PAIR of shinguards at any time? No. The guys can find one of each pair of shinguards, but not a matching pair -- so they end up with a tall one and a short one. I guess this will be ok for a game, since the requirement is for shinguards, not matching ones.

I have been riding a lot this week. The stars aligned and I got to go out almost every day, and I even got to ride with Ron twice so far. Since last week I only rode once though, this week, I am a little bit sore. Those bike saddles have to be adjusted to slowly -- you cannot just throw yourself on them every day for 3 hours or so and not pay a price. Friday, I did a 51 mile ride and then on Monday, I did a 44 mile ride, half of which was uphill. I did a nice middle distance ride on Tuesday with Ron, and then took Wednesday off. Today, Ron and I went for a ride and my coach came along. Now, he has just had his hip resurfaced and had an infection and so hasn't ridden a bike in three whole months. Ron and I thought that maybe we would be able to keep up with him, since obviously, he wasn't at the top of his game. Yeah right.

We headed out and I was dropped immediately. The two men just took off -- as I had told them to do. There is nothing like feeling like everyone is slowing down for you. I hate that, and I told them to just ride ahead and I would give it my best shot to catch up. That didn't happen unless they stopped and waited for me. There was a terrible headwind all the way out to Colossal Cave and back. They insisted that it was a tailwind on the way back, but I didn't feel like that was true at all. I was working my butt off the whole ride. By the time we got home, both Ron and I were limping along as if we had been riding for 8 hours, instead of the two and a half we had ridden. Ron showered and immediately fell asleep, and I showered and then rousted Ron out to get some lunch. After that ride, I needed a cheeseburger. I was very happy to get home in one piece, and I know I will be sleeping very well tonight.