Friday afternoon I rode 15.5 miles with a friend, just around Acton and Stow. Old familiar roads, beautiful temperatures, clear, cool, 60 degrees.
Yesterday I went down to the south coast to do a preliminary ride for a ride I am co-leading in 3 weeks. DH is away, so I went with the other leader, who is a guy that has helped us lead some of our rides. We have similar riding styles and philosophies of leading, so it was fun. It's a 1.5 hour drive down there and he regaled me with stories of poor trip planning and other leaders' disorganization on the way down. It was rainy/drizzly when we left, but not when we arrived. I have a similar ride I do in the same location, and I knew from the cue sheet that his ride was similar, but more of a loop (and shorter). We left from Tiverton HS parking lot and the first 10 miles or so were the same as my other rides I have done here. Then we went to a beach I had never been to and doubled back, on new roads to the lunch spot. Much better than my previous rides, where this lunch spot comes way too early in the trip. I bought a turkey sandwich, we ate (he is like me, doesn't like to hang out too long at stops), and went to finish the last 18 miles of the ride. There were a few hills on this part of the ride, nothing horrible, and I found out that while he zoomed ahead of me on a couple of downhills, I could easily catch him on the ups and we did ride together the whole time. At times we were zooming at 19-20 and other times going 10, to look at the scenery. The last road back is a 3-4% uphill and I always get tired here. I got in the front and was zooming at 13-14 as my friend dropped fairly far behind. It was a good ride and I like it much better than my old route. I didn't drink enough or eat enough after the ride and i felt shaky when I got home, which was remedied by eating and drinking water. 39 miles.
Today I am doing a 30 mile hilly ride around the apple orchards in Harvard, with a combination of friends. As usual, I will be riding alone, as the fast, male half of our cycling friends will be leading and the other 3 women ride much slower than me. But, we stop and wait, and it's a beautiful day. Now I just have to decide if I want to ride to the start at their house, or drive... I know at the end of the ride, I might not want to do the extra 5 miles.