Saturday, January 13, 2007

La Casa

It was a bit on the cold side this morning at 41 degrees when we loaded the car and headed South to ride Casa Grande. Star and I were running a few minutes late to meet the group that had already assembled at the trail head. The head count was 8 when we rolled out but after the first couple miles Star was having some difficulties not just limited to getting used to her clipless pedals. I left her behind so I could catch up and pass the message along for the group to continue without us. Star and I made a number of stops and did just shy of 9 miles and 1000 ft by cutting out a bunch of the south lollipop. We got passed by the group on the return trip while fixing Star's second flat. We needed to make a couple more stops getting us back just as everyone was getting ready to leave the lot.

This ride actually brings even further into focus what I have been thinking about for a while. More often than not, I don't care about the ride so much as that I'm riding. In the last week both Michele and Star have commented to me something along the lines that I don't enjoy riding with them because I'm being held back or limited to easier trail. This line of thinking is just flat wrong. While the it's true that a ride with Michele or Star is going to be different in difficulty, duration, or speed to one I would do on my own I in no way feel held back. I'm just happy to be out riding. I don't care if I have to cut the group loose or if I only log 3 miles, I'm a big boy and I can handle it. I don't need to push myself on every ride and I know damn well what a ride is going to be like when I sign up for it. If I'm really hard up to do some challenging ride or log some big numbers, I won't invite anyone, but 95% of the time I would prefer to have someone to enjoy the trails with. There is of course a flip side to that coin and that is that when I ride with the MTBR crew, I'm the slow one. I'm ok with that. I know when something is going beyond what I can handle and I don't hesitate to pull the plug when it gets to be too much. If your riding with me, don't worry about me. Don't assume that I'm not enjoying a ride for one reason or another, I'm not shy, I'll let you know.

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