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| Clippy shoes: I hope you aren't the death of me! |
In my group ride last weekend I found a gem; Corey! He is an experiences cyclist and is also new in town and needs a buddy...I need a coach. We both like to eat carbs. Sounds pretty good to me!
We met up on Monday evening after work to ride around Haines point. Haines point is that little finger of land that jets out into the Potomac and has a 3.1 mile "loop" that makes for a good bike track. Corey lives near Glover Park, my old stomping grounds, so I rode over there to pick him up and we headed town towards the national mall. Not five minutes into the ride Corey misjudged a curb and bit it. Those clips are hard to get out of fast and his knee paid the lesson. I am
already nervous about my clips, having a new bike and being around cars more, so his knee bleeding into his sock didn't do too much to ease my nerves. He is fine; "no big deal, it will happen to you too". Goodness. We enjoyed going around Ohio drive a few laps and narrowly missed getting a ticket by cops penalizing bikers for running the stop sign. The only reason we didn't get cited is because they were busy giving another group a talking to.
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| Hains Point |
The evening was beautiful, and I love being near the water. And
although the cherry trees are pretty much done blooming, the green and
blue are a great contrast to the concrete. Things were going well
until I notices Corey's back tire was getting flat (dun dun dun!).
Corey is prepared and had a CO2 cartridge and added some air and we
were back on our way to go one more loop. And then his tire went flat
again. He also had a spare tube, and so we pulled over and he changed
his tube. He was running low on CO2 and so a nice cyclist stopped and
lent him his pump. Corey was able to change his tube, but the pump was
actually a little weird so instead of inflating the tire, it broke the
nozzle. Uh oh. Did I mention it was getting dark? Corey asked me if I
had a spare kit, and I didn't. "What if you get a flat?" was his
reasonable question...doesn't do me much good to have a kit if I don't
know how to use it! I am signed up for a bike maintenance class next
week, but that doesn't do us much good right now. I called my roommate
Jesse and he squeezed being my knight in shining armor in between time
visiting with his mother and a date. Jesse drove home, got my bike
rack and picked up Corey and I from the side of the road. Bless you
Jesse! I came home and had carrot cake for dinner. And some cheese.
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| Dinner of champions... |
Tuesday I took it easy because that was after three days of 30 miles
each, and the first time I went 30 miles, that was the farthest I had
been. Repeat three times!
Wednesday I found a group called the Potomac Peddlers. It is a group
for bikers that has been around for a long time and has group rides
throughout the DC/VA/MD area all the time. They organize their rides
by how fast and how many miles and I picked a ride that was
intermediate in difficulty, thinking that would be fine. Wrong. While
waiting to kick off, Corey and I are checking out the group and he
says that they look like folks who know what they're doing. I wonder
out loud that they probably don't have their reflectors on their
wheels, since Corey has implied that I might as well have training
wheels on my bike with mine on, and sure enough, there is only one
other sucker with them on their wheels. I need to get mine off. We
started off by the observatory and headed Northwest. We were looking
for hills and boy did we find them! I thought my heart was going to
jump out of my chest. Most of the group was out of sight so fast I
couldn't believe it. I hung on with a few folks for a while, but even
those last two lost us after a while too. This may have been a bit of
a kick to my self esteem, but that builds character, right Mom and
Dad? Up one particularly brutal hill, Corey looks over at me and asks
"are you regretting signing up for this race?". "Eeek, Corey, where in
the heck is my pep talk?!? Coach!?"
We eventually gave up on finding the group again and made our way
home. Dang reflectors really were slowing me down. I was recanting the
tale of woe to my roommate Nick and he was asking about which hills we
were riding on. All of them! All. Of. Them. I think the entire ride
was uphill!
Thursday was a beautiful and I was joined in my training by Tovah!
After a few false starts involving more flat tires, I rode down to the
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| On the way back from Mount Vernon |
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| Just monkeying around! Poor shoulders! |
Vernon trail towards, you guessed it, Mount Vernon! I had tried to
bike there on my own a month or so ago before I had my road bike. The
day was really windy, my bike was too heavy and I realized part way
that I had bitten off more than I can chew. My ratio of hope:despair
was leaning heavily towards despair. I didn't make it. It didn't help
that at the time my roommate Jesse's training for his marathon was in
high gear and he was RUNNING as far as I could bike. Ugh. This time,
with better weather, a lighter bike (and mood) and the company of a
great friend, we made it! We stopped there for a quick look around,
met a Texan who thought 60 degrees was chilly and made our way back.
My shoulders were bothering me, so we hopped off our bikes near some
monkey bars to stretch them out. See pics!
Yesterday and today I am feeling like I am getting into a groove. I
rode 35 miles with a group through some very beautiful (and hilly!)
countryside in Great Falls Virginia. Apparently this is where the rich
folks hide their McMansions. Some houses were actually really pretty,
like something you'd see in Gone with the Wind, while others just
looked like someone said, "I've got a huge wad of cash, I want
everyone to know it, build it as big as you can!". Not too classy. Of
course I'm not the fastest of the pack, but I'm not the slowest
either. When we got to the parking lot at the beginning of the ride,
it was pretty chilly (only 43 degrees) so I was bundled up with lots
of layers over my riding gear. When Corey saw that I hadn't taken off
my fleece jacket, he had a look of horror on his face and asks if I am
actually going to ride with it. Yes, I'd rather look like a dork than
be a popsicle. If I keep buying stuff for biking my credit card is
going to burst into flames. While we were waiting to get organized and
leave, I tried to talk to the folks in the parking lot. I'm friendly,
right? Some of the guys were big grumps; they were in no mood to chat
when we got there and when I caught up with them later in the ride,
one guys looks me up and down and says "huh, there you are". Jerk.
Watch out for pot holes.
Today I met a few folks who are also doing the Climate Ride. It is
great to get to know some of the folks with whom I'll be spending my
five days with. We met at the National Arboretum (I can't believe I
haven't been there before, so beautiful!) and wandered around there
for a bit. When it began to get too crowded with Easter visitors, we
departed and did another 15 miles for a grand total of 40 miles!
The day wrapped up with yoga this afternoon. Last week after my first
long rides, my legs felt like jello and my poses were "wobbly warrior"
and "wobbly down dog". This week, I felt the fatigue, but not nearly
as much. And while I may have lost sleep last night wondering if I've
bitten off more than I can chew, I am going to keep peddling and hope
that I didn't!
To be continued!
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My Climate Ride: http://tiny.cc/obbjn
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