My first group ride!!

Finally felt well enough to get a full training day in (took me a few days to recover from my LSD on Wed). I was wet by 7:05am this morning and logged 3.5 km. It wasn't my best swim but by the latter half I started to find my "balance" and "feel" for the water.

It's very interesting that when I focus on counting my strokes, I relax and "glide" further. Stroke counts were 17-19.

I quickly hit the change room and suited up for my ride with some folks from my Tri swim group. I would be riding with some accomplished Ironman Triathletes. I was pretty excited to participate in my first group ride (ever) and take my new bike for a long ride too!!

It was a beautiful sunny day. A tad chilly at 9:30am when we set out but it warmed up right quick! This is the view we had today.

First let me say, I love my road bike. She's incredibly responsive and the 54cm frame fits me like a glove. We pedaled 90k in 3.5 hrs and I felt very comfortable on the bike throughout the entire ride. I'm like a kid in a candy store and am now eyeballing a set of Zipp 303's.

Secondly, I really enjoyed riding in a group setting as it just makes time (and distance) just fly by! I really got to know the folks from my Tri swimming group much better and listening to their stories about IMC, IMCDA, IMLP and IMFL was truly inspiring.

Last year at IMC, Jason our "trip coordinator", missed qualifying for Kona by 6 min!! He's determined to qualify this year!

All in all it was a wonderful day, spent with some good friends. I'm really looking forward to our next group ride when I hope to break through that 100km "mental" barrier!