better than last time

 

Last week, I did a club ride that was more than I was ready for. There's a lit of excitement chez Plain Jim about an upcoming move to a house that The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I really like. I'm extra busy, and not sleeping well, and just not in great shape generally. So when the club members I usually ride with posted a ride with climb comparable to the one on which I had so much trouble last week, I decided to go with something else. I found another ride in the same speed class, but less than half the climb, and shorter. 

There were only four other registrants, along with leader Dave. One of them is much faster than I, and another can mostly keep up with her. But two others are regular pals, and the leader comes out on many of my Sunday rides, so I figured I'd have some people to ride with.

At the start, though, I got the message that the two regular pals weren't coming due to car trouble. I swallowed hard, but the leader assured me he'd stay with me. So off we went.

Dave, the leader, planned this to be a winter ride, shorter than usual, without a snack stop. That was OK with me; I've been snacking enough, and I figured I could get through the comparatively short distance on breakfast alone.

I wound up doing better than I'd thought. I wasn't keeping up with the fast woman, of course, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to, and I wound up doing a better pace than I'd thought I would. In the first half of the ride, we rode up to Mt. Rose along Crusher Road, and I was up in or near the front. I fell back after that, but I kept pace with the group the rest of the way.

Dave's route went back up to Mt. Rose along Pennington-Rocky Hill Road, after which he'd planned to go to Province Line... but he asked if we wanted to do that. Another rider said he didn't mind missing the climb, and I quickly agreed, so Dave adjusted the route, and we went to 518 via Hopewell-Princeton Road (most of us know it as the top part of Carter Road).

Dave said he thought that climb to Mt. Rose along Pennington-Rocky Hill was worse than Province Line. I was certainly glad not to do both. 

Dave took us along Bedens Brook Road, an alternative to a stretch of 518. I've got to remember that for some of my rides.

So I think this was a good decision for me, at my current state of fitness, both physical and mental-emotional. I'm glad I had this chance.

Go check the ride page.