Yesterday I FINALLY had the chance to get on my bike and ride. I had not been on my bike since the Seismic Challenge in October. These days my body can really tell when I have not been active... it feels like I'm draggin' along a pile of mush. For some reason in November and December I'm not motivated to get out and move, at the gym, outdoors, nowhere! So I always depend on ALC training rides to get me moving through those months. Luckily Logan had asked for co-leaders for his Fall Crawl series, a Category 1 paced ride (about 8-10mph) and I volunteered for it a few weeks ago. This forced me to get out.
Logan stretching
I'm glad I did too! I got to meet a whole bunch of new people, some of them my own riders (I am their Cycle Buddy). In addition, I ran into a whole lot of familiar faces out on the road (not riding ALC rides, but riding on their own). It was a beautiful day for riding, not too cold not too hot. I swept the first leg of the ride from SB to Mikes. I really didn't have anybody to "sweep" since everyone was riding at a pretty good clip. So at Mikes, I asked Damon if he was ready to roll and he was so we took off for the Tiburon loop together. It was nice riding with other people, and Damon and I had the chance to catch up on things. (Damon was one of my running partners when I trained for the SF Marathon in 2007).
The time passed quickly and soon we were at Shark's Deli where the group stopped for a quick lunch. I had a bagel dog, chatted with folks for bit then got back on my bike and led a small group back to Mike's, our final re-grouping point. James complained of his shifter not working correctly (new bike too) and so we took him into Mike's for a quick adjustment to his dereailleur. They adjusted it quickly (I Love Mike's Bikes for that!) and we were back on the road on our final leg back to SB.
Everyone arrived between 12:30 and 1:15 and no one got left behind. It was a great ride, a first ride for Kimberly who was out on her first official training ride and did fantastic!
After that, Annette and I stopped at Comfort's in San Anselmo for some good lunch!
Note to self (and you): Get out and ride whenever you can in a group... it make it much more enjoyable!
