I went out for an easy training recovery ride today.  The weather was perfect and I just wanted to get out and enjoy the day on my bike.  I took a new route today away from my normal 22 mile loop just to see some different scenery.  That was a bad idea because I wound up traveling on a road that has a lot of traffic and "stupid me" I didn't even think about it being a Saturday afternoon.  Anyway, I managed to avoid all the idiot drivers that were trying to kill me for some reason.  I guess they had nothing better to do.  After covering about 21 miles of the 26 mile out and back route that I was on, I had another surprising scary moment.  This time it wasn't a crazy driver, rather a crazy deer.  I came around a corner doing about 23 mph and out of the woods jumps a huge white tailed buck.  Fortunately for me, he decided that he wanted to run along beside me rather than in front of me.  Needless to say, I almost, well..., I won't say here.  He was so close to me that I could almost have reached out an pet him on the head!  You can't make this up folks.  He ran along beside me for a few hundred feet then kicked it into high gear, bolted down the road and then right back into the woods.  I had been trying to keep my heart rate at a steady 155 or below for this recovery ride.  When I looked down at my Edge 305, it said my hear rate was running at a cool 175.  No, I wasn't going up any hills.

Stay safe out there folks and remember, you have to look out for more than just crazy drivers.  If a 300 pound deer jumps out if front of you when you're doing 25 mph, it could hurt!