A Recovery day and a training day that wasnt.

Yesterday, Wednesday was a recovery day with a planned ride 'off the map' so to speak, a little exploring of the narrow quiet scenic lanes. There was some drizzle for some of the ride, enough to wet the roads for a while but it didn't last long and although it was a bit cooler, around 20c it wasn't exactly cold. I'd like to be able to tell you where I went but apart from the first and last 20 minutes I have no idea. I do know that for most of the ride I wasn't anywhere near where I thought I was, about 20 minutes into the ride I must have got completely turned around in terms of direction, its easy to do in the narrow lanes through the fields, you start by heading North say, the road twists and turns and before you realize it you are heading south! Still no panic I can't ride that far in an hour and eventually I came across a sign that had a place name on it that I recognized, which showed me how far I was from where I thought I was, I managed to get back from there with the minimum of confusion. Of course I could always have asked for directions, but what's the point of exploring if you get directions? Today, Thursday, I had intended to repeat the training session from Tuesday so that's what I set out to do, again a bit cooler today, 20c but sunny with a bit of a wind blowing to make it more interesting. I completed the first lap with intervals and realized that I still had Tuesdays session in my legs, on Tuesday it had been hurting but I had perversely enjoyed it completing it OK, today I knew I was working much harder to get near to the same result. I hadn't fully recovered, given that I'm racing in Holland on Saturday it didn't seem wise to hammer myself again if I was already tired, so abandoned the interval plan and turned the day into a simple endurance ride, although I did enjoy the challenge of hammering into the wind for 10 minutes at maximum watts. I hate it when your mind is writing cheques that your body can't cash!!!!!! A One good thing about today was that I ran into, not literally you understand, my mate Pete Ryalls who did so well at Maryborough when he came to stay earlier in the year, he's been having a bit of a rough time but was buckling down to some training, we have a tentative arrangement for dinner on Monday evening after a race in Eeklo. Currently settled down to watch the tour stage, they seem to have good weather and at 120km to go seems a bit of a promenade for most, I imagine there are a lot of riders quite happy about that after a hectic few days.