One the best in months!

A friend of Dennis Grelk's, named Steve Jones, emailed me last week about getting together for a ride as he was in town for a class. I called up OP and Alex to see if they could come, but Paul was working on his basement (I completely understand as that was me two summers ago!), but Alex could get away. We took off shortly after 6:00 pm on Tuesday and planned on a route a little over 30 or so miles. We took off at a fast pace that I didn't know if I could hold, but I thought I would be willing to suffer the consequences of going out too hard. We were trucking down the gravel at 15-18 or so. Through some hills and on perfect gravel we were having a ball riding with the wind in perfect conditions. We continued the "fast" pace and knew that we were having to turn against the wind up ahead. We started heading south and low and behold, the wind must have died. At this point we had covered something like 23 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes so we were flying (for me!). We continued south and we kind of started letting up a bit. As we headed up the hill by Varnum's house the legs could start to feel the now nearly 30 mile push. We got into McFarland Park to some very wet grass so now we were down to about 6-7 so that we didn't get coated with mud. We left McFarland to hit the two rollers outside of Peterson Pits and I decided, since I had rode all of the ride (but about 30 feet) in 32 X 16 or higher that I would push up these hills in 32 X 16. These hills are probably 8 percent grade so I had to keep the cadence up which was pretty tough at that angle, but it worked out. We made it home safely spinning in at a nice and easy pace. I finished with an average of 15.3 on the computer which is very good for me. I remember last year, before the 29er, that if I could average 13.4 I was doing good. What a difference a bike can make. Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't about the bike because last year I was riding a nearly 30 pound hardtail that just didn't want to go!

Steve and I hit up Brewers in Ames and talked until nearly mid night. Unfortunately, I was up at 4:15 to bake egg bake for the Lions Club meeting this morning. Yes, I was a hurting unit today as I had a hard time staying awake.

I really appreciate Steve emailing me. We had a blast and he is a great guy. This is what riding is all about.

I may have Matt and Alex talked into Levis Trow. Anyone else?

Happy training.