A Little Longer

Thursday and Friday were a little hectic. Why do things always pile up that way this time of year? The Wife was in a little fender-bender, so we had to take the car in for a repair estimate, we abandoned all hope and went to Lakeside Shopping Center one night, my bottom bracket started creaking, work got suddenly very busy, we removed all of the furniture from two rooms in order to have some carpet replaced, and we finally broke down and bought a new mattress that will be delivered Christmas eve.

So when I got an email on Friday saying that a group was getting together for a long ride on the northshore Saturday morning, I was quick to add my name to the roster. Seventy-five miles in the country with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, in December, sounded pretty damned good. It's about time for me to be doing a few more miles, and this would at least me a little longer than my usual Saturday.

I was up by 5:30 so Ed and I could get to the ride start way up in Enon in time. It's been foggy every morning lately, and this one was no exception. Unfortunately, that meant that the causeway was in fog mode, 35 mph and right lane only. Thanks to our early start, we were only a few minutes late.

I had thought it might be a little cooler on that side of the lake, but shorts and single jerseys were the order of the day today. We had ten riders and a rather circuitous 75 mile route on which I invariably get lost, but the pace was moderate and steady for most of the ride and for reasons I can't really explain, my legs were feeling pretty good.

Of course, there was the usual nature break along the way, but the only other significant stop was a brief store visit about twenty miles before we finished. A couple of the guys were kind of pushing the pace, and a few others were having none of it. I was kind of on the fence myself, and so I went with most of the surges today. Ed was riding a fixed gear of something like 49x15, and after 75 miles of hills and a few fast sections, I think his legs were kind of tired.

Tomorrow is the regular northshore winter training ride, and I'm planning on going unless the weather is really uncooperative. It's been about a week since we had anything you could call "cold," and except for the morning fog it's been pretty nice. Now if we can just get one more day like this......