I'm trying to keep the effort levels longer and more sustained at this time of year. I didn't really want to create any riding commitments for Sunday, especially after dinner at Salt & Pepper, the Bow Cycle meet and greet, then drinks at Salt & Pepper again where some tequila shots mysteriously showed up (I'm glad I managed to... uhh.. sneak a boot shot glass out of the restaurant to match my boot mug from Tucson!).
Sitting at my computer Sunday morning, I suddenly felt inspired to meet up with the Jack van Dyke group ride at 11am, so I bolted down to Edworthy in about 20 minutes. Hadn't met much of that crew before, and only knew a few of them.
Although it was scheduled as an E2 Training Ride by the coach himself, it really was just an anything goes ride. Jack TT'd for a while along Airport road, nobody wanted to chase, and I felt like riding into the wind, so we just made an echelon and talked. It was actually really nice steady tempo riding. At 22x, with weather reports and my trusty Eyeball weather forecasting system, I decided to ride north to sunshine rather than south to purple clouds and snow. Only Brian Bain, a speedy young Bow Cycle kid decided to go "my way".
We had coffee in Cochrane at my local dealer, the Cochrane Coffee Traders cafe. It was fun talking to him. I used to think I'd never grow up, University seems like it was yesterday. Brian is in 2nd year engineering, and yeah, of course I'm not an engineer, but it's basically the same cause he's on the way to a profession (I never was good at holding conversations with Psychology or Ancient History types). Some day he'll be a month away from 29, and chances are he'll still be a good rider, and he'll be able to afford whatever bike he fancies. We decided the northwest still looked promising so headed out on Horse Creek Road.
Conditions were beautiful, no traffic, mild wind at our backs so it was virtually silent, and the clouds were distant to the north. We turned around at "the intersection" and retraced back the way we came, then headed over to Big Hill Springs road. I noticed my belly was a little empty and that I didn't have much left for food, but figured at our relaxed pace I'd make it. I also learned a neat new route, I'm going to try to ride it this weekend.
My legs felt strong, but coming into town I was running on fumes, thankfully Brian had some energy stuff to spare. Weekend total was 310km, which I'm somewhat proud of. It means I had nothing else to do but bike, and that makes me happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment