Sunday, June 10th rides

[meridian]

Today was full of new experiences to tuck under my belt. I hooked up with person I met earlier in the week at a LBS for a quick 40 mile ride to judge how we might work out as training partners, but just a few miles into the ride we were allowed to catch the wheels of two very experienced cyclists in the community as they passed us.

While we (thought) we went out starting strong and were averaging about 18, they pulled up around us at a swift 21-22. At first, I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace and debated on whether to bale out the back and just do the ride with the person I headed out with. But we soon caught a good drafting formation and as soon as it looked like we could continue to hang on they asked us if we wanted to head out to the canyon with them and do a few hills and enjoy the scenery. Of course, not wanting to pass up this awesome opportunity we said yes (even though I doubted we would stick together in a pack after they saw how slow I was up those hills).


It was a pretty awesome 55 mile experience, which included a traditional pit stop for beer (their tradition, no beer for me), and good stories.

The break was about 10 miles before heading back and splitting off back inside the city. Since it was a good 20 minutes long, after the pit stop, I had a difficult time warming my knees back up and dropped out the back a few times. I thought for sure they’d drop us and head on their way since we were close to home, but they always waited for me, let me pace in the middle of the group, and slowed their avg speed down so I could hang on. The leader of the pack was very concerned and conscientious about my hydration and knee issues (from what I gathered from his partner, he doesn’t often treat many other riders so ‘plushly’) and he hung back with me, filled up my water bottle from his reserve, and while heading into the city, he looked over my positioning and gave me some advice on tweaking my bike fit to feel a little bit better during those windy hauls and climbs.

Best of all, they enjoyed the experience of having a couple others with them, we received a business card, and were asked to give them a call if we ever wanted to do another Sunday ride out there with them, and we were given the location of their infamous Sunday ride starting point if we just wanted to show up some time.

How awesome is that! I’m glad I decided to stick in there and push myself way harder than I normally would have. I had a grand old time, and bonus, might have just found three occasional riding partners instead of just one!