how slow am I?

[DeniseGoldberg]

If you're thinking about your speed as compared to other riders - as opposed to your speed goals for yourself - or you're in the "I don't care how fast I ride" camp (as I am)... You might appreciate two experiences I had in the past. These were both in the days when I still did organized rides.

The first was a 2-day MS ride I did that was a century each day. One of my co-workers asked if I'd mind if she rode with me. My reply, knowing that she was a much faster rider than I, was that it was fine to ride with me but that I thought she wouldn't be happy with my speed. We agreed to start together and we also agreed that she would take off when she met some faster riders to ride with. That happened at the first rest stop, and she was gone. As always, I was fine with riding alone. I didn't see her again until several hours after I finished the ride for the day, and my assumption was that she finished well before I did. Not so! I completed my ride at least 2 hours before she completed hers. Why? Because I rode at a consistent pace all day, stopping only to refuel and recycle (well not recycle - use the porta-potties!), while she raced off at a fast pace and then stopped at the rest stops for large chunks of time. She was pretty pissed at the end of the day that I'd finished before her!

The second was on a supported tour in California. We were riding from Eureka to San Francisco, and if I remember correctly our daily mileage ranged from 70 to 90 miles. There was one guy on the trip who blasted out of town each morning, speeding down the road. But somehow with my slow but steady pace, I always finished the ride well before him. I really didn't care - but he did! He couldn't understand how I finished first.

I think both of these were a classic case of the old "tortoise and the hare" fable.

But the point again is that we should all ride to meet our own goals - and not those of someone else!

Happy riding everyone...

--- Denise