Pre-Bird Ride

I rode to the bus stop & back home on Wednesday, totaling fifteen miles and some change.

Today, I decided to do something I haven't done in quite a while: drive to the start of a ride.  I've always thought that was kinda silly, and this summer with the help of a new local group called Skinny Tire Pedalers I was able to ride straight from home more often.  But I had a couple goals in mind for today: I wanted to get out on a group ride with the club that I recently joined (LRC), I wanted my stamina to be pushed a little, and I wanted to burn off a few calories before packing many many more on.  So I drove into Boise for LRC's Annual Pre-Bird Ride.

When I arrived there were perhaps fifteen riders there.  By the time we rolled out, we had what we estimated post-ride to be eighty.  Rolling out through downtown Boise with eighty of your closest friends is a neat experience.  The city was quiet.  I'm accustomed to seeing it only during the busiest parts of the day, so the empty streets were somewhat of a shock to me.

I took the middle length of the three route offerings - about 24 miles.  Tyler & Sheree rode their tandem, and they were my comapnions for the first half of the ride.  But I saw some riders a bit more than a mile ahead of us as we approached the turn at Holilynn, and I thought that perhaps this was a good oppotunity to pursue my goal of pushing my stamina.  So at the turn I bid a silent (unnecessarily aloof) adieu to Tyler, Sheree, and their partner in conversation, John; and I motored ahead like a real hero to catch the riders I'd seen earlier.  Even if I couldn't reel them in, I knew my way back to the Co-op.  Plus I figured I'd either catch them or give up before long, and either way then I'd stop & wait for Tyler & company.

So off I went.  In a minute or two, the gang behind me was out of sight around a couple bends in the road.  At least I couldn't see them in my little mirror - for all I know they might've never lost sight of me through the whole ride.  And as I rounded the corner onto Cole & headed north, I could see a couple riders about a mile ahead of me and thought I was making up a little ground.  But by the time I got to where I saw them they'd moved on.  Dang!  I've grown too accustomed to sweeping Skinny Tire rides - catching 12MPH riders doesn't present much of a challenge.  :)

And that cycle repeated once or twice more - I'd catch a glimpse of a cyclist and be motivated to keep trying, then find myself alone.  I think they took a turn that I didn't - the route home was never discussed in detail, and I didn't care enough to press.  So anyway I found myself utterly alone at the intersection of Cole & Overland.  I knew how to get home but I was fairly certain that everyone else had turned on either Amity or Victory.  Come to think of it, I thought they might be turning there but I didn't think to actually look down either of those roads as I crossed them to see if I could see anyone.  Anyway, regardless of our return route I at least made it back to the Co-op before Tyler et al.  Leaving the group wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done on two wheels, but finishing behind the people from whom I forged ahead would have been . . . less graceful still.

Then I came home and took a two-hour nap after eating four Krispy Kreme doughnuts as a warmup to Thanksgiving dinner.  Sheesh.