Recovery Ride?

I was exhausted Saturday night!  Go figure!  Eirik and Gj watched Fletch Lives (Gj's all time favorite and so happy to share Chevy Chase's wit with his son.... ) I was sound asleep in front of the TV.

Sunday, I wanted to ride with the girls from school.  Its a fun group of women who ride their market or mountain bikes in the Industrial Park.  Hope to catch up with them and perhaps Alex and a Quan 7 guy after they finish some freakishly crazy interval training.

 

I decided to ride my Opera.  I haven't ridden it since Thailand and we discovered that I broke the front break lever CASING, not the lever.  So, a good tape job would fix it. 

Gj wanted me to ride with him.  So, that meant it would be late in the morning (well after 9am when everyone else is home, even after social time).  so I said, "fine, but we go to the Industrial Park.  I refuse to ride Nguyen Van Linh on a busy Sunday morning.  Not only is it a death wish, but definitely a recipe for hating cycling!"  I hadn't told him how much I hated cycling just before the Tour.  I was so sick and tired of the traffic, the danger, the near misses... etc...  I was done.  and to have the poor results in Thailand....  just made it worse!

I take him to the IP (Industrial Park).  He was really surpised how nice it was in there.  He wanted to look around at all the factories, etc.  I just said, "Don't take in too much information at a time, save something for the later laps..."

When I reminded him that I would do up to 10 laps in here while training he was shocked.  Kinda boring, huh? 

yeah!

Kinda!

You have to be disciplined and play games or do intervals. 

Its after 11:00 by the time we finish.  We head to the Club House (the coffee shop that the 'team' - Gj has decided he's a team member!  ha ha!).  Of course.... the locals left HOURS ago.  Regardless, we have our 'coffee'.

I order, "Cafe da", she said, "Cafe su dan?", no, "Cafe Da".

Gj orders, "Ngoc", HUH? "Ngoc (nook)", HUH?

okay, Bia Saigon! 

The coffee grounds are put int he metal tin with hot water.  After three minutes, it drips into the glass.  You then pour it over ice that's in the tall glass.  This is traditional Vietnamese Coffee.  Cafe Su Dan is also amazing, but it is with Sweetened condensed milk, and I estimate nearly 300 calories for the drink.  so... only once in a while.

The waitress was laughing at us taking each other's pictures.

Look, I didn't take the picture of myself!  ha ha ha...

Italian Team kit when riding the ex-Bronzini bike!  Always a must.  Pity it makes my figure look even worse than it already is!  ha!

Gj's Sunday Best....

We detour on the way home through the local market.  Fresh fruit, veggies, fish, etc sold in the middle of the street. 

Recovery ride?  Ha!  Average speed over 31kph in the windy Industrial Park with average about 30 for the entire 40km ride... there's no recovery when riding with my old man!  I guess the recovery is taht I sucked his wheel most of the time.  There are big benefits to riding with a big man!