Last week my good friend Ben texted me "I hear you got slicks on your bike!! Shall we?"
Ben had heard that I had my bike's tires changed out from hybrid to street. They aren't super-thin slicks like Ben's but they are much thinner than what I've been riding on all these years. Also, Ben and his family were coming to town for an uber-birthday celebration - Ben's, in fact! So this was a great opportunity.
Except...
Ben rides nearly every day commuting to work (he lives in South Carolina, so heat's usually a bigger factor than cold or icy conditions). He also likes to ride mountains. Big mountains. The Blue Ridge Mountains. He can do hard climbs and long, multi-day rides.
And now he wanted to ride with me.
Last week I rode 12 miles - the first time I had been on my bike since the fall of 2009. That's more than two years, boys and girls. Right now gentle rolling hills flummox me! So the idea of riding with Ben struck me as iffy. I wasn't worried that he would leave me in the dust; I knew he would be kind and stay with me no matter what my pace- and that was the problem! I worried he would be bored. I worried that he would regret asking me to ride with him.
He insisted that he didn't care how slow we traveled. He vowed to never leave his wingman - did I mention he's in the Air Force? His gentle persistance won me over.
Friday night a bunch of us were together and Ben told another friend, who lives here in town, that we were going to go ride on Sunday...and then invited Broc to join us. Oh, boy!
Broc is another one of my favorite people, so that wasn't the problem. The problem is that he is crazy-competitive, especially when cycling with Ben. There are stories...funny stories...about them and other friends tackling hard roads, each pushing to out-do the others.
My ability level doesn't even register against them.
Gulp. Time to swallow my pride, again! (Not an easy thing, mind you...)
Another friend got tagged to join us, too; unfortunately fate (and a wonky car battery) intervened and prevented him from joining us.
Sunday morning: fueling up!
I ate a good breakfast at around 8 am (which was
really 7 am except for that dang move-your-clocks-ahead thing).
Then at 10 am I had a small protein-rich snack, plus water.
11 am - at the park, where we're meeting. Broc drove down. Ben rode down.
Off we go!
Ben wanted to assess my cycling technique so he rode behind me to see what cadence I used. After a couple of miles he gave me some gear management tips, which included using a lower gear than I was & spinning faster. It felt weird and loose, but he explained that this would help me endure longer miles without using up my energy too soon.
He also showed me how to draft. It's not easy. Maintaining such a close distance is a bit scary - especially while riding on a busy street with traffic. I did my best to keep within the drafting sweet spot.
Mid-way through our ride (we re-traced back to start) we started to hit more hills. They weren't bad, but they were obviously harder for me than for them. Ben talked to me about shifting my center of gravity when going up hills - and it really worked! I felt a huge difference when I leaned in - it was almost like climbing stairs rather than pumping up a hill.
Coming back we had a constant head wind. Not fun. Later Ben demonstrated how I can make my body smaller when dealing with head wind. My bike, being a hybrid, has wide handle bars which has me sitting more upright. I can't do the bent over stance and rest on my forearms with this bike.
In the end we rode 16.7 miles in 1 hr, 50 minutes. We would have been faster but...
...Broc crashed!
Along a narrower section of road Ben signaled a pot hole just at the edge of the pavement. I, in turn, signaled for Broc. Broc knew that there was a car that had been following us for a while, rather than passing us. He quickly looked back over his left shoulder and began to wave the car on to pass when his bike drifted just enough right that he nailed the pot hole.
Bang! Screeeeeeech! Ow!
Thankfully the car's driver (& the one behind her!) stopped immediately when Broc flew, in his words, ass over tea kettle to the ground and then got hit by his own bike. I stopped and ran back to him as he got up. A lovely woman in a car going the other way opened up her window and first inquired if he was okay and then gently admonished him to not "do that anymore today".
Ben and Broc realigned his handle bars with his tire, and then Ben realigned the front brake pads so that they wouldn't rub on one side. Amazingly, Broc just kept laughing at the whole thing, even though he road rashed his elbow, hand and side. He wasn't going to quit over it - so onward we rode!
As I told Ben and Broc later, I really enjoyed riding with them. Not only did I learn to be a better cyclist but I had so much fun joking and talking with them as we rode. I felt stronger and I'm sure part of that was because I wasn't "in my head" the whole time - just as with any other activity, time flies when you're having fun!
Now I'm already thinking about my next ride, planning where to go explore on my bike. Think I might give Broc a call and ask him to join me.
After his butt heals.
