Alive and Well

I'm finally back among the living.  After being down and out for the most of last week with pneumonia, I'm finally on the mend.  I still have a bit of a cough but at least I can actually breathe now.  I thought I was getting better on Friday, so I attempted shooting some baskets with Coby (my 8 year old),  but that was short lived and  I paid for it the rest of the day.

There was a group ride planned for Saturday that I had been hoping to join all week.  This would be my first group ride since getting back on the bike.  The ride was supposed to start at 7:30am so I got up early to be sure I could squeeze in an albuterol treatment before leaving.  I was hoping this would open up my lungs just enough to survive the ride.  I left the house at 7:15 to meet up with the group at the Go karts by 7:30.  It was a bit chilly but not too bad.  I think one of the guys said that his car was reading a temperature of 43 degrees.  Not too bad......not a heat wave, but not too bad.  From my house to the Go Karts is only about 1.5 miles at the most and I was already coughing up a lung.  I was still hell bent on going on the ride.  So we headed up towards Hondah and took a right heading toward Whiteriver.  This truly is the prettiest ride up here, especially early in the morning.  The plan was to ride down to the fish hatchery turn off, then ride out to the fish hatchery, turn around and head back to the main road, and then back up the hill.  I was coughing pretty bad so I went to the turn off and let the group go on to the hatchery while I started back up the hill towards Hondah.  Surprisingly I wasn't feeling too bad.  I took my time up the hill and felt pretty good the whole ride home.  I figured that once I hit the warm air in my house that I'd really start coughing, but I never really got any worse.  I took a dose of Advair, had a warm cup of tea, and was feeling pretty darn good. Here's a few pics of the ride, bear with crappy quality, remember I was trying to pedal at the same time.   

Dave and Will

This a view I better get used to if I don't get in shape soon.

In this picture we have a paramedic, physician assistant, a doctor, and a firefighter. If any of us crashed, we were in good hands.:)

It was so good to get out with the guys again.  This was my first group ride after taking almost 2 1/2 years off the bike.  I'm looking forward to a fun summer of riding.

With regards to the challenge, I received a bunch of new numbers while I was sick and I promise to have updated numbers posted real soon. 

I'm hoping to ride my bike to work in the morning so I best go get all my stuff ready.  I have no idea how I'm going to get all my stuff on the bike, but I'll figure out something.  Hope you all have a super night.