The voices are back. (Excellent.)

The last fast ride of our bike year.

Most people keep their biking numbers by the calendar year. We are contrarians on the subject. We spend most of our time water skiing April through September, and we don't do much bike mileage during that time. Instead, our bike year begins in the middle of September when we take our road bikes in for their annual tune-up. The first ride after that tune-up is the official beginning of our bike year.

The bikes are at the Bike Shop for their tune-up. The spreadsheet for the new year's records is ready. We've set our personal goals. Routes for rides are planned and mapped. Love the beta bike route mapping on Google maps, by the way. I've spent many happy hours this summer setting up routes for the coming year.

We took the last ride of the current bike season Tuesday morning. It was a short (20 mile) ride, but we did it fast, making the last data entered for the year look really nice. I made my first sampling of how long I could sustain a 105 cadence at our riding speed. It was comical. I was panting within a mile on that mystery incline early in the ride. (Al laughed.) But I could hear the voices in my head getting me past the panting, past the muscle burn, past the panic when I saw Al beginning to drop me. Love the voices. This is such great fun...