Just finished up a 25 mile ride with Michelle. Ah, the advantages of fitness and youth. It won't take many more hours in the saddle for her to be stinkin' fast.

We met at the veloway, where she informed me that she had forgotten her shoes (noob!)...but her mom was on her way to deliver them. I looked over her bike, asked her if she's having any trouble with it or had any questions. I made a few adjustments (centered her calipers) and then asked when the last time she'd put air in her tires. Her response was "I haven't put any in since I bought it...I thought I'd just ride 'em until they went flat then pump 'em up"(NOOB!). I hooked up my pump and discovered 40psi in each tire! In hindsight, I should have left them there...maybe it would have slowed her down! But...pumped 'em up to 100psi, showed her how presta valves work and explained different theories on tire pressure.

We got onto the veloway and I quickly discovered she's either full-on or full-off (I suspect because of all the spin classes). The veloway is fairly twisty for a tri-bike, so she spent most of the time on the bull-horns for control, not shifting much and just using her legs for speed. We talked about gearing versus effort and spent the second lap with her on the aero bars more and using the gears. I also talked to her about trying to be more consistent in her effort and taught her the "outside pedal down" approach for turns.

After two laps we headed for the open road. There are a couple of really nice 4 mile stretches with wide bike lanes where I was able to ride next to her, with her on her aero bars, making suggestions. We worked a lot on anticipating shifts.

We then went to the road where a local company runs time trial twice a month. I walked her through the course, explaining some of the tricky parts and then we took off. She followed me for a while, then on the first hill, she went past me. I had to put in some extra power to hold on to her but managed to keep up. We made the turn at the mid-point and discovered a head wind but plowed on through the rest of the course. My unofficial time for the time-trial course showed 25'30", probably about a 18-19 mph average. My best on the course is 24-something, just over 20mph. Male course record is 16-something. So..all in all, not too shabby.

The funny part came when on the return leg, we were passed by "an old guy" on a Cervelo. I pulled up next to Michelle, who exclaimed "I hate being passed!"...to which I said "Well go get him!". She applied a little more power but he rode off. About 5 minutes later, another guy (who looked even older) passed us, again on a Cervelo. I pulled up next to her again and she said "How can these old guys be passing me? They must be 70!". Then she said "How much further?". I told her about another 2 miles. She cranked it up and pretty quickly put a gap on me, trying to close the gap on the "old guy" but never got any closer...I was able to hold my gap...but was working hard.

All in all, a great ride with good company. It was a lot of fun getting in early in her development. Unless I train like a madman, I can see her looking for other ride partners pretty quickly!