Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
I got myself out the door and did my group's 23 mile ride before the Chanukah party. There was a 33 mile ride that was supposed to be at regular pace for the group, but then someone added in the shorter ride. Hence, the longer riders were going to be averaging 16 or so. I looked at the route, and said no way, so I suited up and and planned to be going slowly. But, I was surprised, although at the end we slowed and my average was way low, it did not feel slow for most of the ride. I stayed behind the leader (or 2nd behind him), and since there were only 8 or 9 of us, we stayed together, as there was no downloaded route for this ride. We didn't need to use human arrows, either, just waited twice. It wasn't like we were riding anyplace i hadn't been, except for one neighborhood in Acton, where I haven't been in years. My kids had several friends there, but never ridden there. The ride was pretty flat, with enough small hills to keep me busy.
We got back before the other riders and the hikers. I was able to clean myself up a bit without tons of people clamoring to get in the bathroom. Food was awesome (this group likes to eat), but I was restrained. I did have a glass of wine, 2 PM, though! I did not stay for the Yankee swap, which often goes on for hours.
A very pleasant day, and I am glad I went. My only annoyance was the one guy who always is half wheeling me, passes me, and then I drop him when we get to a hill. He calls out "car back, 2 cars back, 3 cars back," as well as other unecessary things. But, I think he got the message today, without me saying anything...
It's sometimes a fine line between calling out helpful information and being annoying. I know one person who always yells "Car back" in a very loud voice, even when there are only one or two people riding with her and we're all close together. But then there are the people who ride in front of you without giving so much as a hint about potholes and debris that you need to avoid...

Wednesday was chilly and cloudy here with fog expected at night, so I did my weekly hill ride on Thursday instead. We're having this unusually warm weather right now and it was in the low 60s with sunshine yesterday. But it was also kind of humid, especially after the sun went down and temps dropped to the high 40s, which were the conditions when I was riding. I was warm when I first started out, where I ride alongside a highway. But as I rode into the neighborhoods with less pavement and more creeks, it got noticeably cooler. On hot summer days it's great to reach the cooler part of the ride, but this time of year it can make it tricky to figure out how many layers you need. Fortunately last night I was dressed more or less correctly and was mostly comfortable, though it was chilly going downhill. Originally I planned to do the shortest version of the route but since I know I will probably have to start riding indoors soon, I decided to only take some of the possible shortcuts. In all I rode about 17.5 miles.

It was nice to see all the houses decorated for Christmas and to notice the different styles -- some were understated with just wreaths and electric candles while others had lots of colored lights and other decorations. One large house had a wreath in every front window -- I counted 12 plus the big one on the front door. (It's a beautiful house with a great front porch, I envy it every time I ride by.)