weekend of oct 22-23, 2011

Here's another one of those "weekend roundup" posts that I seem to be doing recently.

Yesterday was a 45-mile ride through the hills, led by Laura, Our Lady of Perpetual Headwinds. It was, of course, a beautiful ride, given the day, the time of year, and the places Laura chooses to ride; she had a friend along who's a recent transplant from The Left Coast (his wife's in a doctoral program in, I think, Columbia), and so we were showing off a number of the crystal sights to which we get to ride.

At the break, Laura referred to me as an "A-rider with a B attitude" (for the uninitiated, rides are classified by letter; A rides are hard and fast, B rides are more relaxed and conversational; D rides are for those who can barely stay upright on two wheels). She bases this, I think, on my practice of not pushing the pace faster than people want to go (even though I'm usually one of the fastest riders in the groups with whom I ride), on not dropping slower riders, and on looking out for the people in the back of the ride to make sure they aren't overstressed or having mechanical (or other) problems (a practice known as "sweeping" on group rides; I do it frequently, unasked, and I'm good at it). I think she gives me too much credit:

• First, I'm definitely not an A rider. I'm pretty sure I'm a B+ rider, but I've been dropped by enough faster people to know my limits.
  
• Second, while I do try to keep friendly when I ride, part of the reason I ride with the people I do is that I don't want to be in competition with other riders all the time. That's not because I'm not competitive. It's because I'm so competitive that I can't bear to be outdone. I'd rather ride more slowly overall, but go sprinting up hills and wait at the top (Hrmph! I make sure people know that I'm fast!) than ride with people who are more in my class, and be pressed to my limits more of the time.
  
• As for sweeping - it's a way to take on a leadership position without actually having to lead a ride (which I can't do, since I don't know the roads). A case can be made that even the sweeping is feeding my ego.

So while I'm grateful for her good wishes (and hope to maintain them), and while there may be some good that comes out of the way I ride, I'm sure that my motives are not all the purest!

Today's ride was south & east (mostly in the flats) out of Cranbury. At the start, another rider asked if I were the author of this blog - so now, apparently, I have four readers! I suspect he got here from Laura's blog; she's linked here. The monthly ride list of the Princeton Freewheelers lists a number of blogs and sites that are bicycle-related, and I've thought of submitting this one, but I haven't. It's true that a plurality of the verbiage I generate for this blog is bike-related. But it's also true that I spill a lot of metaphoric ink about such topics as:

1. Left-wing politics;
   
2. My relationship with the excellent wife, our dates, some of our disagreements, and other stuff;
   
3. Various things I find entertaining or intriguing; and
   
4. My barely-successful attempts to manage and compensate for my anxiety disorder and other psychological vulnerabilities.

Before I list this blog with the Freewheelers, I'd have to do a disclaimer page, and I don't think I have either the legal knowledge or the coding skills. And by the way - yes, two lovely autumn rides in two days and no photos. I don't do photos. You wanna see the lovely stuff? Come out and ride with us. I won't drop you; I don't drop anybody.

Edit: I don't drop anybody anymore; see the comments for my recent experience over this.