MA day 5: "taking it easy today" -paul borden

Well with the best intentions I mapped and planned for an easy day. Something like 40miles and 1.5-2k climbing. Nothing hard. Stick to the basics and scope out some roads north east of here near the New York state border.

Rolled out around 4-4:15pm for my ride. A bit late, but no biggie for a 2-2.5hr chill ride. Plenty of light to be hard. Hit a snag looking for my first major left hand turn. Did a little back tracking figuring I missed the turn (or rather got the first and not the third street name it's called off Google maps). While back tracking i saw a cyclist, figured I'd ask the local. Said he would show me the street since he was on his warm up for a group ride. Being a fool I asked about then group ride....blah blah about local hoss's and that it was 40-50miles of eye bleeding. So I figured "why not".

In the parking lot we waited a bit and people talked up tales about "last week was so fast". This got me a little scared because it was my day off and I have a mt bike ride tomorrow with a local shop. I lucked out and all the big cat 1/2 guys were off at a stage race about 70miles away. The other locals however did not get so lucky. About 5miles into the group ride it became apparent when I gased it up the first big climb I was the hoss. Weak.

There were a few "entering city/township" signs we did sprints for. The signs were hidden by over hanging trees so I missed the first two. Asked the other riders the proximity to the next few...and then proceeded to show them that sprinting at the last second was not necessary when we could go super fast for a whole mile! Towards the end of the ride they didn't put up much of a fight. Just some local club guys tried to bridge so I waited up and finished out the last bit with them. Wasn't a terribly impressive ride. Definitely went way too hard for my "day off". Tomorrow should be icing on my crispy cake.

Got the low down on the mt bike ride Thursday from one of the riders tonight. Might be a shaky description based on attendance but apparently I'll get about a solid 2-3hrs in on the saddle. No droppage since the group will be large. I'll see what kind of gas they are cooking with if I've got any left in my tank...which isnt much.

here is the real route i took:


:::ride stats:::
ride time: 3:05:20
distance: 59.56