Metric Century Saturday

Cranked out a 62 mile bike ride (aka metric century...hence the title). I did not plan on riding hard, but I did. It ALWAYS seems that I hook up with some other riders and put down the hammer. Started hard, felt crappy. Legs were tight and I knew that I just had not spent enough time on the bike lately. I got in with a few folks and we motored up near the front...I finally threw in the towel and slowed up (as did most near the front). A group up front gapped the rest of us and then made the first turn. I was near the front of the second group and we made the turn...a couple of miles later, we couldn't see the front group and realized we should have made a hard right instead of the 45 degree right. After checking the map, I found that we could get back on course by heading on down the road and making a later turn. After the "revised" turn I checked the map again and then looked back. Instead of 4 or 5 of us off course, there were 25-30. Where the heck did they all come from? Turns out they watched us make the earlier wrong turn and followed blindly behind. Never said bike riders were the smartest folks in the world...including yours truly.

Rode past the second rest stop and most stopped. A few of us pressed on to the turn around point and returned to the same rest stop after spending ~40 miles on the road. While waiting on some folks to leave, I decided to leave and soft pedal until they caught up. After soft pedaling about a mile, I did not see anyone coming up behind so I got going. I usually don't like to time trial on my own. I enjoy riding in a small pack taking turns pulling at the front...much more efficient and fast. I figured the group behind would catch up eventually. But, after passing a number of folks and still riding alone, I am about 3 miles from the finish with a couple of steep little rolling hills that I ran out of gas. I have not bonked in quite a long time, but I hit the wall on this one. Fortunately, I was not far from the barn and pressed on with a guy I know from earlier rides. This guy is big and as he says, "the best 300 lb bike rider in the area." There is no doubt...I had trouble hanging onto his wheel after I initially caught him. I finished the ride with him and was ready to be off the bike. I packed up the bike, had a bite of BBQ (it is a southern bike ridin' thing), and headed to the house.

Stats: 19.7 mph pace for 62 miles and 2700' of climbing (rolling hills...no real climb).

Sunday...did not do jack...I did think about running if that counts for anything ;-)