I helped lead a 30 mile training ride for the AIDS ride yesterday, I don't know my exact mileage, adding to and from BART and since I swept at the end I had to double back a couple of times it was probably 40.

Great ride, decent route and a great group. it was nice to take advantage of a brief window of good weather here.

Tut tut, looks like rain today and for the next few days. Good excuse for a rest day. Maybe get my taxes done. I have a massage appointment and will drop by and see Spazzdog too.

As I took BART out yesterday I thought "the hills are looking very green. Oh hills, we're in the hills, OY, gonna ride hills".

We had about a dozen riders and 5 ride leaders. We warmed up, I did the obligitory safety speach and we headed out.

The ride starts with a long but gentle hill, y'all know I'm not fast or good at hills but was complimenting myself that on my first long group ride of the season I'm "keeping up with the guys" then I look down.

Oh, I'm in my small chainring, usually on a hill like that I'd be in the middle on a low gear in rear deraileur. This is NOT a granny gear hill for me. Alrighty then, doing pretty good. Without really thinking about it I've geared down to stay behind the group. Could easily be with the faster pack.

Well, it is a Cat 1 ride after all.

One guy was clearly struggling so I hung back with him. He's got some serious structural issues with his knee, not just the brace he wears but each time he got off the bike I feared his ankle would roll, the muscles around his ankle are very weak and they are supporting one big big guy, well over 6 foot. So his right side is compensating and his right leg cramps up frequently....OY.

We talked about some things he can do about the ankle. bike fit of course but also....

I wear a knee brace that's a marvel of modern engineering, not on the bike but in Aikido. I made some suggestions to "prop up" the ankle, hung back behind him and gently reminded him to spin up hills not push a big gear to flush out the lactic acid that's cramping him up.

He's got two water bottles but no electrolyte, that's not helping either.

He said spinning helps. Ultimately he wisely accepted a ride back in about 6 miles from the end. Since I was sweeping I rode the last hill in alone and got a well deserved downhill into Orinda.

Another thing for the new riders is diet. You can't expect to skip breakfast or eat very little and go out and ride or train hard. At a rest stop we'd talked and seveal of the riders had either not had breakfast or "yeah, I ate a lot, I had a banana and coffee".

Well, no wonder you struggle hills ;-)