Party in the USA

On our drive over to Boulder for today's ride, Stacey and I were listening to a recent This American Life podcast called "#1 Party School". At one point during the show there is a short clip of Miley Cyrus' ubiquitous hit "Party in the USA", and Ira Glass mentions that the song was played at every college party he attended while producing the episode.

Well wouldn't you know it, the song was stuck in my head for the first two hours of my ride. I only know two or three lines in the song, so my internal voice was quite repititive: "Waving my hips like yeah," "And the Britney song was on, and the Britney song was on," or "Yeaeaeaheah it's a Party in the USA" over and over again. Every time I'd turn around and meet up with Stacey, I'd try get it stuck in her head by singing "Yeaeaeaheah it's a Party in the USA".

I tried everything I could think of to get the song out of my head. The Jim Halpert method (see "Lovefool" by the Cardigans) was moderately successful, and at one point I even resorted to "Mmmbop". Still, no luck.

Anyhow, other than my internal soundtrack it was a gorgeous day in along the Front Range. We rode out to Lyons and then headed up Hwy 7 through the national forest in the direction of Peak to Peak. We only made it about 50 minutes past Lyons before we had to turn around, but I think that may be the most scenic road I've ever ridden down. I tried snapping a few pictures with the cellphone:






Of course, the pictures don't do the scenery justice.

The return trip to Boulder along Hwy 36 was interesting. The Hwy was jam packed with cyclists. Not only that, but they're nearly all friendly. I rarely passed a rider heading in the other direction that didn't at least give a head-nod. I think that's especially impressive because someone rides by every 30 seconds or so -- it's not as if as a rider you encounter only one or two people per hour.

Anyhow, here's the ride in graph form:

My average HR was 126 bpm. I don't feel like I'm in great long ride shape at the moment. Even with a HR average as low as 126 bpm, my legs are a moderately tired after 3:30. A few more weeks with a 3-4 hr ride per week should change that.