A rather different sort of weekend. Nothing to write home about, course-, conditions-, or data-wise, but really wonderful.

Yesterday, I got to ride with a friend who's been out of commission for a while - surgery and recuperation. Really easy-going ride, as you might imagine, but I was kind of concerned when we had to stop for a breather before we got half way. But then it was really great how he got his second wind on the way back - after the climbing, mind you - and rode really well the last few miles - almost back to his old form! About 44 miles, 2,100' to Piermont and back, leisurely, but home before lunch. 10 miles, 700' of that was my trip to the meeting point and back home, so my recovering friend didn't have quite so much work, but 33 miles was still pretty good, all things considered.

Today was also awesome. 23 miles, 1,200' in our little ride to the Market and back, so, like I was saying, totally unremarkable in that respect. But an old friend, whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years, had contacted me because he wanted to start riding road bikes - prompted in part by his considering that this will be the last year he'll want to run the Marathon, and how he'd like to have a nicer bike than his old hybrid, etc., etc. He came up to test ride a couple of my bikes, so we took the Casati and Helium out, so he could see the difference in those kinds of bikes, and some of the difference gearing can make (Casati has compact, Helium has mid). He's 3" shorter than I, but an adjustment to the seat height worked out fine.

He started on the Casati and warmed up to that pretty well, then after we had a bite to eat at the Market, we swapped bikes and he took the Helium. Took to it like a duck to water, and totally got the advantage it had for accelerating up hills. He'd struggled behind me on the hills earlier, but with the Helium on our last climbs, he was climbing like mad. We used to ride motorcycles together, and it was kind of like the old days - he isn't yet, but he's definitely going to be way faster than I, just like he was on motos; great bike handling skills, great confidence, etc....

And now he's definitely going to be faster, because I sold him my Propel! At the end of our ride, I took him by my local shop. We looked at a very nice second-hand Look 595 (Record 11sp, Zipp 202 tubulars), and a couple of TCR they had on sale, which had been very tempting. Then he asks whether I'd want to sell any of my bikes. Well, his enthusiasm for them was so great, I couldn't say no. I sold it to him "as is" with the brand new saddle, clip-on aero bars and the deep-rimmed racing wheels (tubular), because I didn't have any need for them on any other bike, so he still needs to spend a few dollars for some more versatile, day-to-day wheels, and some new cleats or new pedal and cleat system (we could have taken the cleats off the shoes I let him use today, but they're rather worn, and he'll want new anyhow, so I just let him borrow the shoes for the time being).