Riding with other people is also new to me. We'll all have to adjust to different elements of group riding, but at least we can work on it together.

Where hills are concerned, I think I'm the opposite of most people. Not being warmed up doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for me. I felt like my stops were shorter on the couple of hills at the beginning of last weekend's ride. I had more trouble with the hills later in the loop, when I was fatigued. I'm sure I'll still have to stop partway up the first killer hill, so maybe when you guys turn right to warm up, I'll go ahead and turn left and see how far I get before you catch up. Since the rest of the ride is less elevation than the Peach Tree Loop, hopefully we'll be able to stick together with no problems.

Now, here's where the contradiction of my time constraint comes in: What time are we planning to meet and start riding?

(After all this, just watch Mom Nature render it all moot by giving us rainstorms on the 19th... )