Chili Ride ….
I joined 40-50 other riders today for a 48 mile loop from Springfield to Halltown and back. It was the annual Springbike Chili Ride, the local bike club’s first organized ride of the season.
Part of the time, I’m not sure why I do these club rides….my style of cycling is not like a lot of those guys who like to hammer every mile. I tend to prefer to cruise a little more than they do even though I’m a pretty strong rider. I noticed today that a lot of them tend to drop me on the flats, but I am stronger than they are on the hills. I suspect it comes from my penchant for riding in the middle chain ring 100% of the time, but it may just be the fact that they’re simply stronger and faster than me. I know my small size gives me a weight advantage going uphill, but it may actually be detrimental otherwise.
I rode with Joe from work the biggest part of the day. I suspect this was his first real ride of the year, because he struggled on the way back. We had a side wind most of the day, and the return trip had a lot of hills that pretty much whipped him.
The last few miles I was riding with Pam E. from work as well. She’s only three weeks away from an Ironman competition in Arizona, and I really suspect I couldn’t have dropped her if I tried. It was interesting to talk to her about her training regimine. I definately don’t have that kind of time to devote to something like that if I wanted.
Overall, I suppose it was worth doing. I got on a lot of roads I’ve never ridden before, and it was good to try to stretch myself in terms of distance. My legs are feeling it now, though.
Oh…I didn’t bother staying for the chili lunch afterward. In the two years past that I’ve done this ride, it was pretty much all gone by the time I got in. I really thought we were kind of close to the end of the pack since a lot of them cut the ride to 20 miles, but there were still a lot of cars there as we pulled in.
48.24 miles at an average speed of 15.0 mph.
Tomorrow’s Easter. Remember what it is we celebrate…a risen Savior.
God bless…
TW
