seems like a good idea

I've started doing a slower-paced ride, a C+ ride instead of my usual B, for the last ride of the month, and I think it's a good idea for The Excellent Wife (TEW) and me.

TEW gets to come out on a ride that I lead, I get a half-credit for a date with TEW, I get to see some folks I usually don't, and my usual riders seem to enjoy the low pressure (and maybe a chance for a recovery ride that really is a recovery ride).

Andrew A, who came out today (along with TEW, Mini B, Mindy B, and Laura OLPH), pointed out that the "B minus" pace of my usual rides has been creeping up. He's right about that. He ascribes it to my lost weight; I don't think that's the only reason, although it's certainly true that I'm stronger than I was earlier in the season (or maybe it's closer to the truth to say it's not only the lost weight). It's also that, as people are learning about these rides, and coming out for them, some of the riders are faster, and the group is keeping up. (Also: I post my routes at the request of some riders - one of whom, now I think of it, has never come out - and so people can get the routes themselves and ride on ahead, knowing we'll catch up sooner or later.)

I don't know if I'll continue to aim for that "B minus" pace on my regular Sunday rides. I expect, though, that I'll continue to post these last-of-the-month C+ rides. After all, Mini, from whom I'd not heard since the last time I posted one of these, and Mindy, who was traumatized on Province Line Road, both came out!

The GPS gave me some trouble, so I'll post the two pieces of this ride below. Here we are at the intersection of Amsterdam and Hillsborough Roads, as I was fooling around with the technology:

We bobbled through Hillsborough and Franklin for a bit, and headed down to 518, where we did a couple miles straight to the Boro Bean (Mini turned to go home before that; she had another commitment. I'm just glad she came out).

Instead of heading straight back, I did a quick tour of the back street (my GPS doesn't like straight-out-and-back routes). That got Laura pointed in the direction of Pennington for the ride home; she said she stopped in at the Pig and picked up a couple of cookies. So just by modifying expectations, I have caused improvement in the local economy. I'm suffused with indirect patriotic pride.

Then we did four miles on 518 back, into the wind (I don't remember a tailwnd on the way out, and shouldn't the prevailing west-ish wind have been at our backs?). We turned up Burnt Hill and onto Orchard, and found where the construction is supposed to be... luckily, it's NOT in the way of my going-the-wrong-way on Opossum Road for a few of my other routes. So the three of us that were left made it back to the start without mishap.

Ride pages: here's the first bit, before the GPS decided to turn off of its own volition (it does that about once every eighteen months or so), and the second bit. The ride pages include my ride from home to the breakfast bagel, and then to the start, and then the ride home afterwards.

In other news, I've led rides in three categories (C, C+, and B) this year; is that a record for diversity in a single year?