Crossing the Rubicon

Or "the mercury rose past 60F today!" Which means I rode the Sunday Beginner-Relaxer ride in shorts. How nice and how different from Saturday morning, when Pete and Tom joind me in 24F chill for a 50 mile-ish hill climbing extravaganza. But first a word or two on today's outing. It was perfect weather, dry and pleasant, and the MUSA brand seersucker bike shirt over a wool tee was just the ticket. MUSA shorts over some merino boxers and I was good to go. I deliberately add no carbs today and kept my pace in the fat-burn range all afternoon. It felt fine. In fact early AM blood sugar this morning was under 100 for the first time in maybe 3 years! Yay me. I rode the Saluki which has stopped mystery shifting now that the bar ends are good and secure once more. The Rambouillet came along too for another rider to try out, Donna. She liked it and looked good on it. I took a picture but chopped her head off and so you'll just have to take my word for it. There were 10 of us today, including Pete on his NOS Trek 520. Beautiful blue factory paint still fresh. He added a Brooks B17 and it looks sharp and rides right. Steve joined us and was good company, likewise Curtis. Ron put in an appearance and then flew a different flight plan, as is his wont, but we saw him a few times along the way, before he, like Mike, peeled off to find more miles elsewhere.

Here is Jacob, looking like a racer already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob likes to be near the front. Everyone else was pretty content to just idle along and chat. Here are Deb and Susan, with Steve pulling rear guard duty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could have snapped another picture of Deb, had I been on top of my game. She reached down with her right hand to replace her water bottle while pedaling and squeezed her front brake lever accidentally with her left. Oops! Endo-rama folks. Fortunately, she and the bike were both okay. We paused anyway to catch a breather before moving on. Her helmet and gloves did what they were supposed to do, and she was none the worse for wear.

20 miles +/- and this crowd averaged 12.9, which is almost Club LIte territory! and we came back into a headwind even..

Yesterday, I wore wool socks inside sealskinz and wool gloves along with double layer wool everywhere else, and had no cold problems. I made sure to eat and drink sensibly along the way and stay at a sustainable pace. We got just shy of 50 miles and almost 2,800' inlcuding a couple of short steep ups. Much nicer than last week. Sunny and less wind. Never felt "in extremis" either. very much hoping next weekend's weather supports a two wheeled outing again!

 

Tailwinds.