A Bike Ride with the Girls

Michele and I at the end of our ride.


Oh what a glorious day Sunday was! Not only did I get to sleep in until 7:00am I had an awesome bike ride with a few of my favorite biker chicks!

Brenda and I had talked Saturday about riding at 9:00am on Sunday, there is a standing 1:30 ride but neither one of us wanted to go that late in the day. Arland, Rock and Gary were also planning on riding at 9:00 but I knew we wouldn't be riding with them. Brenda and I planned to do the 27 mile route we had done a few weeks ago when Mark and Perry came to Cabot to ride with us. It has some hills, and some rough roads, but there is also a great stretch where we can ride side by side and chat for quite a while.
Vicki heard us talking and decided she would also join us, and I was also able to talk Michele into joining us.
So at 9:00am we were geared up and ready to go, we said goodbye to the the guys and Rock and we were on our way.
The first few miles are on Mt. Carmel/321, this is a very busy stretch of highway and very hilly mostly rolling hills but a couple of good climbs. Pretty much this section of road we ride single file and pretty hard just so we can get done with it. I did get to chat with Brenda a little bit on this road but for the most part the traffic was too heavy for much socializing. Once we got to Lemay though we all regrouped and were able to chat a bit more. We took turns riding with each other and then there would be stretches where we were all kind of strung out. On one of the roads Michele had been riding with Vic and Brenda and I were in the lead, a little bit later Michele caught up with me and we road together for a while, finally she said I was having more fun with Vicki, I was like HUH??? she said you are pushing me too hard... HA.. No... you are the one pushing!! LOL
We rode like that for a bit and then turned onto another kind of busy road and the next thing you know Michele is off like a rocket!!! Zoom she just sped away!! at first I was going to speed up and catch her but decided that was too much work so I slowed my pace just a bit and Brenda and Vicki caught up... we were all marveling over Michele!! I think this was her 3rd maybe 4th bike ride and she is already awesome!!!
Finally she got tired of riding by herself and we had turned onto hwy 236 which although chip sealed and bumpy in a few spots is one of my favorite stretches of the route because of the low volume of traffic. I tried to practice my aerobars some on this road but they just didn't feel right. I don't know if I will ever get used to those things!!
It was really windy on Sunday and for the first part of the ride we had a lot of cross winds, and even had a tailwind for one section but all that was about to come to an end at our next turn. I'm not sure what comes first hwy 89 or Kerr station road, and it doesn't really matter because they are both busy and we had a vicious head wind on both of them.
It felt like we were trying to push through a brick wall pretty much the rest of the way back to the school!! We had a few more climbs and a few downhills but you couldn't really take advantage of the downhills because of the wind!!
I tried out my aerobars again and Vicki was riding beside me encouraging me, but I just don't feel secure enough in them!!
Vicki on the other hand has them down pat!!! She really makes it look easy.
Brenda had to be finished with the ride at 11:00 and we had 27.3 miles when we got to the gas station across from the elementary school. Michele had run out of water and we all wanted something else to drink besides the hot water in our bottles!! I grabbed a diet mountain dew to share with Michele.. she had been out of water for awhile and she looked kind of rough, I'm not used to seeing her like that so it kind of worried me. She was ok though once she drank some water and mountain dew.
Vicki was planning on meeting the 1:30 group so she and Brenda ended their ride. I asked Michele if she wanted to ride a little bit longer so we could get 30 miles, sounded good to her so we were off. We decided to go down one of our normal running routes, 89 to Bradley, Dietrich, through the neighborhoods over to Michele's house. We made a pit stop while there and also refilled our water bottles. We were going to head over to the high school and headed off in that direction when inspiration struck and I said hey why don't we go to Mountain Mudd!!!!! Oh hell yeah Michele was immediately on board and luckily I had some money so we headed to MM and got Sugar Free White Chocolate, Fat free, double shot of espresso on ice!! WOW what a way to refuel!! There was one dilema... how to drink it and ride???? Luckily for me Michele is brillant and suggested I empty one of my water bottles and pour my coffee in it. I know that doesn't sound so brillant it really just makes sense, but at that time it sounded like the smartest thing Ive ever heard!! LOL
Michele on the other hand just rode with her's in her hand... no way could I have done that!!!
We were at 31.3 when we got to Mountain Mudd so after we got our coffee we said well now we have to get 35 miles, Michele lead us all over Cabot and then we were headed back to the school. I looked down and we were at 36.4 miles .. I looked at Michele and said hey how about we just make it 40.. so again she lead us through town and when we got back to the school we had 41.3 miles! We did have to contend with a lot of traffic and had to cross a couple of busy highways a couple of times, and there were a few stressful moments but it was all worth it!!
When we got back to the elementary school I saw that Arland, Gary and Rock had just beat us back from their 50 mile ride.
We all chatted for a bit and then I was anxious to get home and get a shower and something to eat. I had sprayed on sunscreen before I left the house and between the sunscreen, sweat, dirt and salt I was a mess!!!!
I stopped at Sonic on the way home and got a big cup of ice with lemons for me and a coke for Arland. Oh that ice was heavenly!!! funny how everything is better after an intense workout!

After a shower and lunch with Arland I headed to Magness Creek to spend a couple hours with Kylie and Livia :) It was another perfect day!! What a great weekend!!