thanksgiving & other rides

We were off for Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Friday, and even with going to visit the Excellent In-Laws (well, she is The Excellent Wife [TEW]; would you expect anything else?), I managed to get rides in both days. On Thanksgiving, it was early and cold, I did the 20-miles-up Coppermine-down-Old-Georgetown-and-back loop, averaging 18.1 in some pretty cold weather; the next day, on a much warmer afternoon ride over the same route, I averaged almost 18.75.

Yesterday brought a flurry of emails from some of my quondam ride partners, none of whom were impressed with the offerings in the Princeton Freewheelers ride list for today, but I couldn't match schedules to meet with any of 'em. So I went to the Cranbury ride start (after adding my usual 7-8 miles from Cliff's office & after a couple of bagels at Bagel Street), hoping to tag along with the B ride... but Ira, the usual leader, is on the injured list, and nobody showed up in his place. Instead, eight of us went along with Peter F who agreed to lead a 40-or-so mile ride, with no stops ("Too cold!") and to keep the pace down so everyone could keep up. (This is the infamous Ed Post B+ ride, on which I've had the experience of being dropped, an experience common to many of my fellow club members.) Al L, Bob W and his wife Phyllis, Dave H, Jud H, and a younger gentleman whose name I forgot to get went along.

We started out together, but by about 10-15 miles in, we had split into two groups: Bob, Phyllis, Al, and me in the back, and the others about 1/4 mile ahead.  Phyllis and I had quite a conversation where she told me she followed this blog (you have no IDEA how flattered I was!), and we discussed family histories, addiction recovery, and other topics, generally solving all the world's problems... but at one of the turns before the halfway point, Bob, Phyllis, and Al took a different turn, and the rest of us five went on to do this route.

The good news is I could keep up; I even did my share of pulling. But oh, boy, howdy was it windy; you can tell by the comparatively low average (for a B+ ride) that we were fighting wind much of the way back. I remember feeling the bike being buffeted, and struggling to keep balance, and I decided not to add any extra miles on the way back to Cliff's office; the wind was straight in my face, and I didn't get above 13.5 for that whole part of the trip, I don't think.

I'm tired now. I'll plan to go on Winter Larry's ride tomorrow... but ain't gonna be much speedy showin' off on the Yellow Maserati on that ride, I don't think!  Still - if I can get 44 miles in, I'll have 4500 for the year, and that's not bad before the end of November.