At Least We Tried
Between all of this years travels (both business and family), track meets, baseball games, and wet weather I haven't been on my bike a lot, much less gone on a group ride. That's been pretty disappointing since Will's swim schedule lined up perfectly to remove any conflicts from that angle. Finally last week we got the chance to get out. I have to admit I was a little nervous. With the little of riding I have done, I was worried about my ability to stay with the group for 26 miles and with Will having ridden even less, I was more concerned with him. Last year he struggled to find his form on the shorter, slower ride and the first ride we did together a couple weeks ago showed some of the same signs. I had hope because our most recent ride left him strong and ready for more, not to mention how he dusted me on the hills. I think he may have been a little nervous as well.
We showed up at the ride with plenty of time to get a parking space, which isn't always easy with 200+ showing up for this ride each week, and found our place in the staging area. As we pulled out, I became less nervous about Will as he was riding strong toward the front of the group. We cruised along well for the first 5 miles before coming to a fairly busy cross street. We were slowing in prep for the intersection, but the leaders were late in calling for a stop. Will moved to the right to avoid hitting the rider in front of him, who unfortunately did the same. Long story short, they made contact and Will hit the pavement. Luckily not too bad; some skin off his knee, a bloody elbow, ripped shorts (OK, he needed new ones anyway), pretty scraped up hip (ouch!), and messed up bar tape (crap!). He was sore for a few days, but we got everything squared away and he raced and won our local Kids Tri for Kids triathlon on Monday.
This week we were back to the group ride for another try. I still had the same nerves as last week but with an additional concern of riding in the group. The weather threatened a little bit, and we did get drizzled on a little for the last 5 miles of the ride, but everything was a success! Both Will and I had a great ride, and while we didn't spend the entire ride side by side, we didn't make sure that we were near each other after intersections and did spend much of the ride together. Nerves are gone, Will has a new max ride distance and is in good form. We'll still take it a little easy for the first 1/2 of the ride, but I can see us potentially moving up to the next group before the summer is over.
Artist for Song in Title: Moby
We showed up at the ride with plenty of time to get a parking space, which isn't always easy with 200+ showing up for this ride each week, and found our place in the staging area. As we pulled out, I became less nervous about Will as he was riding strong toward the front of the group. We cruised along well for the first 5 miles before coming to a fairly busy cross street. We were slowing in prep for the intersection, but the leaders were late in calling for a stop. Will moved to the right to avoid hitting the rider in front of him, who unfortunately did the same. Long story short, they made contact and Will hit the pavement. Luckily not too bad; some skin off his knee, a bloody elbow, ripped shorts (OK, he needed new ones anyway), pretty scraped up hip (ouch!), and messed up bar tape (crap!). He was sore for a few days, but we got everything squared away and he raced and won our local Kids Tri for Kids triathlon on Monday.
This week we were back to the group ride for another try. I still had the same nerves as last week but with an additional concern of riding in the group. The weather threatened a little bit, and we did get drizzled on a little for the last 5 miles of the ride, but everything was a success! Both Will and I had a great ride, and while we didn't spend the entire ride side by side, we didn't make sure that we were near each other after intersections and did spend much of the ride together. Nerves are gone, Will has a new max ride distance and is in good form. We'll still take it a little easy for the first 1/2 of the ride, but I can see us potentially moving up to the next group before the summer is over.
Artist for Song in Title: Moby
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