Sneaky teachers
This has been my second “kick back” ride with my bike club in as many weeks. Last week after a rather easy start we just happened to come upon 4 hills or grades that tested my legs more than I had expected. I figured it was just a coincidence and at least I finished the ride with the rest of the group. I felt good about the ride even if as I have said in other posts, I am not a big fan of hills.
Today when I got to the starting point of our ride the two lead riders mentioned they were feeling a bit lazy and we would be taking another kick back ride. One of the slower riders led part of the ride and I even was in the front for a few miles. Then we made a turn towards the foothills and the next thing I knew I saw a rather long looking hill in front of us. To be honest I was hoping we were going to turn before we reached the bottom of the hill but we didn’t. I held on the best I could for a while but slowly but surely I fell behind. As I crested the hill I was pretty disappointed to see it was relatively flat on the other side. However I did manage to catch up to the group, as they didn’t seem to be in a great hurry. About the time my breathing was back to normal and my legs stopped hurting I saw we were coming up to an even steeper hill. It turned out to be a two-stage hill with the first half being the hardest.
To make matters even worse towards the top of the hill a German shepherd came running out after us. However he was more interested in racing with the leaders to the top of the hill so by the time I got there he was tired and trotted home.
The ride from there back to the coffee shop was uneventful and once again I finished with the group. However these hills were harder than the last ones and my suspicion is they were teaching me something. Sneaky teachers.