On Saturday we had a buddy ride beginning at Orinda BART. The BART lady gave us an etiquette lesson when we went to use the bathroom, but the morning smoothed out quickly.
Rocky start to the ride--in the first 5 minutes we heard "rider down"--heart rates raced. Turns out it was Sarah--people not calling out properly. The beginning of the ride was a good suburban tour through Orinda and Moraga, onto Walnut Creek, Alamo, and a stop at Peet's in Danville. I rode with the front pack and we pacelined for a few miles. This style of group riding is still new to me but my frustrations with people who burn themselves out at the front were already building and I wanted to be with my friends. I was already craving pizza (I don't even like pizza that much) but the only options were sweet. The first group rode out and I chose to hang back and wait to ride with Sarah and Molly.
We rode out, past the development that was once my jr high and the mortuary that was our hometown library. We passed a guy setting up his "yes on 8" signs. "NO, sir." was all I could say to him. We rode past Susan's street and then the creek, the house I was raised in and on to San Ramon--GREAT tailwinds! In Dublin, we approached the 580 on-ramp. Tamara had a flat-glass.
Changed it and headed over to the SAG--chips-yum, otter pops-refreshing! I gave myself a bite mark parking my bike--gear wheel jammed into my leg.
We got back on the road, people were pretty lethargic and we weren't even halfway through the ride. Long, steady, boring incline along 580. Flat tire--Molly this time, although we never found the reason. Re-grouped, back on the road. Little climb and a descent--passed Holy Cross, Mark's church.
Then onto a couple more climbs. I was having troubling with the mileage counting on my cycling computer, but heartrate showed up fine--Riding slower meant I wasn't pushing into heart rate zone, an important part of training. K Sue told me to for it on the real climb--ride on ahead and wait. I did. It was a longer climb, but I pushed into zone only a couple times. Got to the top and gauged that I could ride down and encourage others who might be more tired. They were a ways back, but rode up behind Lisa, who needed to stop for a bit. Another flat tire down the hill. Headed on up one last time and enjoyed the beautiful descent into redwoods.
At this point we'd all had enough of being in the saddle, rode into Moraga, full of signs proclaiming "this is Moraga, not Berkeley!" Really? Huh? You really had me going there.
Post ride pizza and beer were yum. Headed home to finish my sermon and be up at 6 am.
This Saturday: 80 miles!
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