This sat. last I did one of my usual charity rides, the "Pedal for Paws", a benefit for the local humane society. My intent was to do the first part of the 65 mile route and cut it short by backroading after the 2nd rest stop. I wanted to do that section as it is a bit hillier than the back half, would be a good workout and give me an opportunity to feel self-righteous about "a serious" workout (as opposed to my usual rides of this year).

After checking in, I headed out, grumbling a bit because I had a short steep hill almost immediately. Does anyone else need a bit of extra time to warm up? Once I conquered that I felt good and cruised along nicely. Then I came to the 1st rest stop. Drat! There standing and talking with the volunteers was an acquaintance of mine whom I didn't even know was a rider.

He mentioned that he had signed up for the 65 and had only been out a few times this year. I asked if he wanted company for a few miles and off we went. At the 2nd rest stop I must have gotten a bit confused with the heat, at least thats my story and I'm sticking to it. because when we left it was in the direction I had originally not intended. So much for the "best laid plans".

It turned out to be a tough 65 miles due to heat, his bike themometer registered 102f at one point, a brisk head wind on most of the back half and by the fact that I had only ridden 500 miles with a long ride of 27 up to that point. Worse yet I didn't have pie at the finish. I must have been more than tired!

On the upside, it underlined the boost having company can give, gave me my 1st metric century of the year and the justification to eat ice cream for 3 consecutive days!

P.S. Can I this count as my b-day ride?

Nice! Hills, heat & wind would be a tough day for anybody. And you helped out a fellow cyclist.

Sounds like a great ride. Somehow the nastier the ride was during the doing of it, the longer the memories last.

Hang on-Isn'y your birthday in September? If so- It can count for last years.

Couple of weeks ago and there was a ride on sunday. I was asked to do it on Sarurday as a team member had dropped out. No tenough milage for me this year so I had my doubts but 5 miles to the strt- 54 miles on the ride and 6 at the end to bring me up to 65. That was my first metric of the year and my Ride my age ride for this year.

Surprising thing was that Other than the volume of riders- The ride did not hurt me. Haven't done more than 30 miles on a ride this year so like you----I can thank someone that I had enough residual fitness to be able to complete the ride. But I was lucky- temp just up in the 70's and there was nowhere that you could power up a slope. Road was too crowded for that. The whole ride was taken on tickover.

Don't you just hate it when that happens? About a month ago, I accidently rode almost twice my intended ride because the guy I met in the parking lot that morning and rode with just kept talking and talking and I didn't want to be rude. So a thirty mile 30 mile ride ended up being a 50 mile ride. I'm sticking to this story as well.