River Loop

Today I have the day off work so that I can see the allergy specialist who I booked into 4 months ago (this was the first available appointment!).  Sadly, my dog can get in to see a medical professional almost immediately, but that's the state of Qld's health system for you.

So, because I wasn't going in to work I really had no good reason NOT to ride to West End and ride home.  I don't have a problem riding in, but it makes the coffee after the river loop a whole lot more enjoyable knowing you are finished rather than having to hoof it home afterwards.

The ride in was good, Craig and I rode in together and we managed to do it in just over 35mins which is probably my fastest ride in, normally I dawdle in and it takes me around 45mins.  It is nice to start the ride warmed up, it takes me about an hour on the bike to get warmed up.

There were quite a lot of ladies on the ride this morning (and Chris!).  It was a really good ride, we all seemed to stick together and ride in a good bunch and it didn't seem too disjointed.  The pace was good.  I like it when I can keep up comfortably, it helped that I rode at the back and drafted my way around though!!  Chris got a flat, it actually exploded and sounded like a car backfiring or a gun going off - it was so loud!  There was no doubt that someone had a flat tyre, that's for sure! Sophie and Chris stayed and sorted out the tyre, they had all the gear and they were adamant that we didn't all need to stop.  I hope they got it sorted out OK, I told them to ring us if they had any problems with it.

Coffee was great, we met up with Alicia, Sarah and Felicity who had run; I didn't envy them, it was so hot and humid it would have been a hard slog that's for sure. They sounded like they did a really long run too - including going up Dornoch Tce!

The ride home was no fun, I lost Craig, as he went a different way - I went over the Kurilpa Bridge which is really good, but getting on to the bicentennial bikeway from there doesn't flow very well, you think they would have sorted that out a bit better when they built it.

Jumped in the pool with Craig when I got home - it was bliss!  Tried to coax Nattie our Dalmatian in but she wasn't convinced it was such a good idea.  When we purchased the house I had some reservations about the pool; I didn't want it to end up festering and looking disgusting however Craig has done a marvellous job looking after it and we use it regularly after a run by standing in it letting it cool our legs and it felt great today after such a humid ride to be lolling around in the pool, so I think we are going to get pretty good value out of it.

So, all in all the ride was a 35km river loop with a 9km ride there and back making it just over the 50km mark.