Notes
Dewi and I had our first road ride today & we rocked it! Well . . . . mostly. We did well, AND, I have one little split of 22mph! I believe that was going down this one really cool hill early on. It was pretty & fun. I was not going to do this, not going to do this, not going to do this, so, after a bit of arm twisting, I did it. I really did like it. It was great. The weather could not have been more perfect. The route was scenic, & there were very few cars. I was with friends that weren't going to ditch me so all was well. Dan, Lisa & I stayed together. Going out was easy. The wind was at our backs & there were a lot of downhills. We also stopped at a Casey's where Lisa & Dan got coffee & donuts & I had some of the donut. We got confused at one point which way to go. We wanted the 40 mile route, but there were other distances as well. After a bit of discussion, & map checking we backtracked just a tiny bit and got back on track for the 40. The last part of this ride was harder. There were more hills & we had wind which I think was around 10mph according to Weatherbug earlier on when I checked. After a sag stop at the end I struggled to keep up and actually fell quite a bit behind. Finally figured out why. I had unzipped my jacket at the sag & was catching the wind. It was amazing how it dragged me down. I tried to zip up while trying to ride and keep up but couldn't. Finally, I stopped, got zipped & was on my way much better then! Lisa & Dan waited for me. The rest of the ride was a push for me. Perhaps partly d/t the struggle I just mentioned, but likely the hills, & wind were a factor as well. I knew I should draft, but seemed to either lose focus or just wasn't strong enough to keep up enough to draft. I was close, but not close enough to effectively draft for about 50% of the time. I did get to enjoy it a good bit though. I wonder if I had concentrated more if I could have drafted more. Seemed like when I focused and thought about what I was doing I was ok. Not sure, but I was near enough and/or right by them almost the entire way. Overall, I felt like I handled the hills well, but I sure was working hard and sucking air. Really, really sucking some air a few times! This was probably the perfect distance, situation etc. for my first. It gave me good exposure, was friendly, tested me at the end, yet was doable so I could be successful & feel good about it. I also learned to watch the road for the directional markings. They were hard to see & easy to miss. The sag stops were good. They even had fig newtons! Also, PB & J with a HUGE sharp knife to spread it on the bread with. That was a little odd. At one point we met a man with a flat. We spent a lot of time with him as Dan & another man assisted him. Seemed that nothing was going right to get him fixed up. Finally, Dan got him set & we were off again. Made it back to the strip mall & got our reward of pumpkin pie! Saw Fred as he was volunteering for the Ride. We ate our pie & headed out. This ride started at the strip mall in Holts Summit, went through Fulton, Guthrie, Carrington, and New Bloomfield. Saw a fair amount of cows. I really feel like I made maximum use out of this glorious Missouri fall day. I'm glad I did it. I was supposed to be in Columbus this weekend, but today felt right - right where I was & that helped a lot. My heel felt better after some pressure therapy this a.m. & then the ride. I will try to run tomorrow. Am grateful tonight for friends who have looked out for me.