42 Miles ride. OK, 42.30 mile ride (the computer doesn't lie) yesterday in Davidsonville MD. About 10 miles due east of the beltway at the "3 o'clock" point. I'd never been, but apparently local roadies have been riding here since bikes were invented. Attached below my bike computer is the route cue sheet, kind of like guitar tab for riding. Left here go so many miles, right here, pass this road, you get the idea. Both hands on the bike is a pretty good rule to follow, so coach Ed "installed" a map holder. The kit was composed of 1 small binder clip and about 4 inches of black electrical tape. Works pretty well :)
So rolling hills...oddly enough, I haven't ridden them in a long long time. San Diego had a lot of big hills, this felt different. Constantly shifting gears, every couple of minutes another hill, lots of turns. It was active, hard to get bored. Having missed a couple of rides, I'm still learning who rides at about my speed. Of course, I went out too fast and after 9 miles was a little concerned at how tired I was. I think I was also feeling the Thursday ride, which was relatively fast and only 2 days before. I rode alone for most of the first quarter, then magically my teammates Dave and Dan showed up and rode with me for about 8 miles which made all the difference. They've done Tahoe lots of times, and I think were on the lookout for floundering newbies. Here's a photo from our honored teammate Ashton's dad who was supporting this ride, at a left turn where Dave is waving and I'm signaling a left turn :) That's me on the left. The forecast said 80 and sunny, so I wore layers that I could easily remove. As it turned out, 55 and overcast was more accurate, and I didn't take off any layers, and wished for a while in the middle that I had a few more!
At the halfway mark, we stopped for a snack and a refuel by the water. One of the most awesome parts of these organized rides is that there's SAG support "short for Support And Guidance" so they set up food, stand at corners and generally are completely fantastic. I had a slice of local blueberry pie, refilled my water bottle and ate a banana. And then I felt a lot better.
I picked out a few teammates who seemed about my speed and rode with them for the second half, which was much easier than the first. I'm not sure if it was me getting used to the bike (this was really only my third ride on it), having some food in me, being with other riders, knowing that I was past the halfway mark or a bit more downhill roads on the course. Which is not to say it was easy. I'm really not sure whether I might have to make some modifications the the bike to get a few more easy gears. We'll see, when the hill got steep, I was hurting for the low gears on my last bike...
Anyway, I survived, wasn't too sore and feel much better today than I did a day after our 16 miles ride Thursday. I think my body is starting to adjust. Either that or everything's going numb. Well not everything, I think I need a new saddle, which was predicted when I bought the bike :) Oh, and I finally remembered to have someone take a picture of me after the ride!
Looks like my fundraising is at 92% - I'm almost there! Apparently amazing things happen as you increase over the minimum fundraising mark, maybe I'll get to find out...
Thanks to all of you who are making this possible.
Go team.
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