so much sunshine it hurts

florida. saw an osprey pluck a talapia out of a golf course pond while playing golf w/my bro-in-law yesterday, came within feet of a HUGE alligator sunning himself in cape canaveral today, saw some flamingos, pelicans, sand cranes, buzzards, lizards, all that crazy florida wildlife stuff. but, riding down here is kinda like riding the indoor trainer while watching a nature show. it's so flat you have to ride over a bridge to get hill-work in, so that's exactly what i've been doing! riding over the banana river. again and again and again.

little re-cap:

friday. opened my bike box and saw that airport security had opened 'er up and removed everything then re-packed it all f'd up. my wheels got compressed and during friday's planned 15o' ride, a couple spokes exploded 105' into it. the wheel was f'd, jenn came to the rescue and we were off to the bike shop with my nieces in tow (while driving my sister's crazy new bmw - that thing's got some ballz!). i digress. casey of revolution cycles in melbourne got me rollin' asap, nice guy, jenn, myself and the nieces made it to the movie. my nieces are the bomb, super-cute, super-smart and just good kids (ages 5 and 7). all was well, minus losing 45' of saddle time - on a planned hard effort day. oh well. wasn't really feeling it anyway, and was worried why the legs haven't gone golden - usually they do about a week after a super hard effort such as last wknd's century...

saturday. my sister and i went for a ride together for the first time up into cocoa. that was sweet, minus forgetting to put suntan lotion on and having my arms catch on fire. sidenote, my sister and bro-in-law have gotten totally jacked, lost crazy weight and are fitness gurus these days. my sister is training for a tri and my bro is mastering golf and running almost everyday. i'm very psyched for them. proud, really. anyway, jenn convinced me to rest-up, so i rode with my sister for 75'-80', then played golf with D (my bro-in-law), ate some giant steaks and watched florida beat-up on poor george mason - no love for george mason in our household with 2 florida grads on-hand!

today. epic! had 200-220' before brunch to get my hard session in. headed across the banana river, then up into cape canaveral and the marietta national seashore. was on fire! started the ride at 23-34, which was a mistake, as about 120' into it really began to feel the tempo. the sun beat me down pretty bad during the last 60', but managed to keep the tempo decent and finished-up the 68m ride in 198' at an avs of 20.3mph - by far the fastest i've ridden for that length of time by myself. of course, it's pancake flat here, so i can't "really" count this one as a personal best, at least not w/o an asterick next to it - but at least it's not the same kind of asterick that they'll need to put next to barry bonds home run record (if he sets it)! dirt bag mofo.

said goodbye to my sister and her fam today, but am looking fwd to more sun, rides, golf, and time with jenn's mom and husband over on the Gulf side of florida for the next few days, before heading back to beantown and out to the otter. i'm finally feeling ready - today's ride was just the breakthrough a brother needed!

24 hours of cutler is looking like a 90% chance now. maybe i'll meet a fellow blogger, turn some laps...

i turn 31 yrs old in 37 minutes. not really excited about it. the yrs are really flying-by these days, but they're good yrs, so i guess i shouldn't compain...