Just wanted to resurrect this thread. It always makes me laugh.

Today I decided to venture with the local riders and tackle 30-35 miles with them. Since my longest ride was a slow 36 miles at 14 mph, I asked about the pace - but was told "no rider left behind", so I ventured to make the ride.

Although the starting point was only 5 miles from my door, figured if we do 35 miles at a higher pace I might be pretty spent, so I drove over there. The guys start pulling in, on their bikes, and the one guy not on his bike is at least 15 years younger and probably 80 lbs lighter. Group had some bigger guys, so I had some hope.

We take the "less hilly" route to save a guy who just had his knee scoped less than two weeks ago. "Less hilly" is a relative term.

So we cross the highway and then I look down and we are doing a solid 22 mph and continue that pace for a few miles. Its been a long time since I have ridden 20+ for 5 miles, look down at my avg speed 18.9, the bumps/hills have slowed us down. They are keeping an eye on me, having someone ride with me but I can never gain enough on the descents to catch back up to the group comfortably before the next incline appears. Finally after 10 miles I look down, and for most of you this is your Sunday ride speed, but for me at 47 years old, 240 lbs - 16.9 mph is going pretty good. I had to let Mike go and catch up with the guys, they had a couple of hundred yards on us and he was more than kind to ride with me.

I took it easy and made my way back to the starting point, only 21.5 miles, but those first ten took a lot out of me. I'm hoping I can get out with them a few more times and actually get in with the group. Good guys, just wish I had more time to talk to them