Potpourri

OK, I may have been a little harsh on the elite riders and the elite wannabes’s. It has recently been mentioned to me that maybe they are going too fast to say anything and at that speed they could scare someone with fewer bicycling skills, I’ll buy that. Then, and I have experienced this, you say ‘on your left to a walker’, and the person panics and turns around to the left to see who said that and why. I have curbed that by ringing my, thought to be, stupid Specialized factory bell then saying’ on your left.’ I have found that I do get more thank you remarks than jumpers. And what is nice is to hear, “I wish all Bicyclists were that nice”. Of course, the a fore mentioned speedy guys go by way too fast to hear the “ass hole” remark.

I have noticed, especially the last couple of weeks, that I am getting more greetings, head nods, or waves than I ever have before. Yes, the amount of “on your left” have risen greatly also. It would be interesting to know just how many people read these maniac scribblings. I know there was at least two.

Well May is over and the organized rides are getting into full swing. My larger man cub and myself are doing our first organized ride this month. It is pretty much for recreational riders which fits us well. We will be doing a 30 mile loop of what is known as the Goose Chase. I understand that the expectation of entrants in the Run, Walk, and Bike event is about 1,000. So, yes, Toto there are a lot of Recreational riders. My little man cub set up a water/Gatorade stand at the bottom of our driveway over the weekend. We are on a major bike route, and the riders that stopped were getting ready for a number of rides. Next weekend there is the annual Elephant Rock ride in Castle Rock, Colorado. This, over the years, has turned into one of the premier bike rides in Colorado. Others were getting ready for the MS 150, the Triple by Pass and even a ride up in Wyoming. Little man cub made $72.00 in the two days. Talking to the riders was almost disheartening. They talked of their day’s ride and would finish up with 45, 55, 60 and one with 75 miles. It made my 22 miles earlier in the day seem like a warm up ride. But don’t let things like that get you down.

May was my best month since I started last year. I rode 17 days for a total of 302.9 miles. That is over a hundred miles more than I have done in the past year. For the 302 miles I averaged 12.8 mph and a cadence of 69.5. Just since January I improved 1.3 mph and my cadence improved by 6 rpm’s. See, that training log really comes in handy. By the way, the 302 miles has resulted in a loss of 5 more pounds and my new bib shorts are a large with out X’s in front of large.

So how are you doing? Add a comment and let me know if riding is working for you.

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“G”