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Wednesday night...rain. Thursday... rain forecast to end in the afternoon but it kept raining into the evening. Yes I can ride in the rain but I really don't enjoy it, especially when it's dark and cool at the same time.
Friday night...clear skies, no wind, temps around 70 dropping to the low 60s. So I went for a very nice bike ride. 17 miles.
Sunset was just before 7 pm. (Our next post-7pm sunset will be on March 8. I have noted this in my calendar.) I was having an easy day at work and thought I'd be able to leave a bit early, but I made the mistake of exchanging pleasantries with someone as I was leaving the restroom and learned the hard way that this woman really likes to talk. It took me 20 minutes to extricate myself from a conversation about cold offices. For some reason I now know that this woman has to leave the drawers of her dresser open otherwise her clothes smell bad. Anyway that was 20 minutes of lost daylight for my bike ride.
Another lesson learned the hard way -- soccer season has started and the soccer parents in this town are clueless and self-absorbed. I was thinking of moving the ride start, and now I think I have to do that to avoid either being run over by their SUVs or crashing into them when they look straight at me coming towards them down a big hill and then step into the street in directly front of me.
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We led/swept our annual ride in Tiverton/Little Compton, RI/Westport, MA. It was 81 degrees today! Some years it's been 48.
DH agreed to sweep, which left me with the middle of the pack. Poor DH was stuck with a group of women, who weren't just slow, that would be OK, but treating the ride as a tour, not a group ride. A couple peeled off before lunch, to looky-loo, and after lunch, the whole group of them went off alone. Why even sign up? Well, I think they wanted to go to the after ride dinner at a lobster shack. So, I stayed in the back with DH after lunch, for awhile, until he left me, then we regrouped and the leader told us to go ahead with a few people while he waited for some to use the bathroom. We had just regrouped again, after the top of a hill, when a guy got a flat. Since the leader was now at the back, we went ahead, and DH went back at one point, to ask some of the riders if the leader had stopped to help the guy. He had, so we continued on, in the lead. We really picked up the pace, since we have plans to go out tonight , for DH's birthday. The last road on this ride is a slight uphill, and I always feel it. However, we did really well, and the whole ride felt like it went faster than usual.
The 3 of us decided that next year, we will not advertise this ride on the club's web site, and Lamar will just call the people who want to ride in a beautiful location, but are all about the same speed. We have had 2 groups in past years, but this year we limited it to 22 people, but Lamar gave in and let those women sign up, despite knowing they did not fit in with the rest. He has a "following" of ladies, always does a dinner afterwards, etc., where I just want to go home after a hot and sweaty ride. It takes an hour and 20 minutes to get there, so I am glad I am home and ready to EAT!
40 miles, flat and some small hills in the second half.
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Today was one of my worst riding experiences, ever! But, even worse for DH. We volunteered to lead a ride that was done in conjunction with our synagogue and 2 other local congregations in other towns. We worked with with the guy spearheading the thing, in helping him with things like liability, etc. I invited him to come on a ride that I swept last wk. with another leader, so he would see our style. So, after leading yesterday, going out to dinner last night, we drove over to our temple, which is in the next town at 8 AM. There were about 20-25 people for a 9 AM start. The purpose of this ride was to provide information about several organizations that work for peace in Israel; one, Seeds of Peace, is a well known group that works with teens from many warring countries, by sending them to camp together, in Maine. They do all kinds of other stuff, too. DH gave the safety talk, and we headed out.... cutting through the high school campus, where my kids went to school. As soon as we got out to the next street, I could not even see DH, maybe a couple of other riders way ahead, and 2-3 slower people in front of me. I was pissed.
One of these women, was wobbly, had poor road skills, and was scaring me to death. I won't go into details, but when we had to ride through Concord Center, she got on the sidewalk and started laughing, in the middle of tons of traffic, pedestrians, and other riders. I had her and another woman get behind me, and led them though the traffic... and got to the next congregation.
DH came running up to me and said, "I'm done!" Apparently, the riders went racing ahead of him, pushing the speed up to an average of 18-20, after we advertised the ride as 13-15 average. They basically told him they would do whatever they wanted, were very rude to him. Now, DH can ride this fast, but this was not the purpose. Plus, they all got lost, since they weren't following him, and half of them didn't even look at the cue sheet or have a GPS. We were about to ride back to Acton, when the guy who had set this up volunteered to take the "fast group," and several people were clamoring to go with us. It was fine after that, in terms of speed, and staying mostly together, except for one woman whose chain fell off twice, and the we got caught up in a group *motorcycle* ride, as we were approaching a left turn at a busy intersection. They were 3-5 abreast on a 2 lane road, wouldn't let us in, and made the left turn, on a red light, stopping the cross traffic. We had to work to quickly get in the next left turn lane and the wobbly woman was hugging the right side of the road, after the motorcycle people got through. Oy. I think I said the f word, not very leader like. When we got to the next synagogue, I was upset, hot (it was like 85 degrees today), and suffering with allergies mightily. I got some food, and it was fine after that, as we were heading back, and after another horrendous left turn in traffic (we did not plan the route), we were on quieter roads that I am familiar with. The wobbly woman made a few other egregious moves, but I tried to teach her how to shift,a fter she almost fell over on a hill.
We all came in together, and were thanked profusely, but I will not be volunteering to do this again.
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.....the reason i most often ride alone or with people i know
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My best riding month so far as weather was generally cooler, but for this weekend which was pretty hot.
My rides are generally between 50-60km and on weekends only due to lack of time or obligations I have during week nights. This weekend we were camping and I did 2 rides of 50km but they were hilly and for today lots of winds. This bike is my best sport purchase ever. I love it a lot and becoming a better dare devil. Lol no fear...well with reasonable risks. If I could I would ride it more often but it is what it is for now. Better than a lot of people doing nothing.
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Rebecca, I hear you. The rides we usually lead are with a club that is very safety oriented and we have to screen the people for most of the rides, so we can turn people down. We also tend to get the same people on the same rides every year. We do lead 2 of the bigger club rides that are show and go, but we've learned to manage this. But, we only lead about 5 rides a year, sometimes help out as co-leaders with someone else. Other than that, I ride with my DH, or2-3 other friends, or alone.
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The wobbly woman was probably more scared than you were. Was it advertised as a beginner ride?
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No. This was a ride devised as a mini fund raiser/informational thing by a man at my temple. He is a good rider, but I don't think he had a clue about these types of things. We advertised the ride as an average of 13-15. Which is why the fast guys were totally out of line.
The wobbly girl was not scared. She thought it was "funny." There was a cultural thing going on, too. Not sure if she was Russian or Israeli, but she was young and had a decent bike, just hadn't ridden in awhile. Didn't know how to shift or where to put her hands. Thankfully, her friend was with her and helped her, too.
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We are having beautiful fall weather here--and I've been completely buried in work :(
But I did take advantage of my commute on Saturday--I got up 30 minutes early (=6AM--this is a big deal for me on a Saturday morning...) and tripled the length of my ride to work--then on the way home I took a 25 mile detour, riding to and around Mercer Island. It was gorgeous--even more so than in the summer, I think. Some trees are starting to turn, and their color is highlighted even more by the deep green background of all the evergreen trees around here. Add in bright sun, and views of water and mountains, and I'd be happy for my "commute" never to end :)
