Sub23OLH

Went out with some friends Wednesday night to get a baseline time for Old La Honda. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, I told my friend Dan I would be happy to be under 24 (in true Sandbagger fashion). Knowing I was not on top form, I decided I would run out the first couple hundred yards in 39/23, then get into 39/27 where I belonged and stay there instead of blowing up in the 25. I kept that strategy until the 2nd Upenuf Road where I knew I could start blasting into the 25 and eventually the 23 for the last couple of shallow bends.

Time - 22:57


Have not weighed myself but I am probably around 210. Getting to 190 should be 2 easy minutes, and the process of getting to 190 should require enough training for another 50 seconds. 8 seconds can be had by jettisoning the pump and the water bottles :)

It's a good baseline to start with, back in 2001 I told myself I could but myself a Seven if I got under 22, at that point 24 was my record. So I am clearly not dead yet if I consider myself "out of shape" and am a minute faster than I was after 3 years of trying to figure out how to ride a bike (I bought my first road bike as an adult in 1998).