Saturday Morning Ride

Due to the fact that most people are not up from a night of binge drinking, Sam was flexible enough to move back the ride time today to 9:00. He showed up in his pimped out Honda CRV with the custom neon green and pink fade paint job. However, he did not come alone... he had his entourage as well. Another fully loaded Tahoe with 4 people in it to make sure he had everything, i.e. wife and kids.

I was informed that Gregg "Casper" Gallagher would be there, but I never seemed to see him. I'm sure he was there in spirit. Rumor has it that he and Scott decided to go on their own solo mission and try and get in some serious training rather than hanging out with us hackers. I'm sure Scott just did not want to be made fun of again because he did not have a helmet.

The day started out sunny and fairly warm. As we both turned on our MP3 players the tempo immediately picked up while climbing the 8% grade out of my neighborhood. I'm sure Sam was listening to some of his music from his mullet wearing days like Motley Crue or Poison... maybe even Twisted Sister. Whoever it was, I knew they had big hair, makeup, and worse of all, they were men.

We ended up riding about the same loop as we did last week. Out towards Deer Park and then back along Hwy 2 and then out Greenbluff and then to the Valley and then home. I took a pretty hard 1 hour pull passing many roadkills including a big chocolate Lab that pulled at my heart. Always sad to see those big dogs on the road. Somewhere there is a family wondering if their family friend will be coming home. Someone will eventually have to tell them.

After about an hour, Sam went to the front after careening down a descent at about 50 mph. I sat on his wheel for about 30 minutes trying to match his pace on the climbs as he got out of the saddle and powered up them. We eventually go to the Greenbluff loop where Sam started to use some interesting strategies to get rid of me. He started throwing his CO2 cartriges at me as well as some other tools. I picked them up and we got them back onto his steed.

We completed the Greenbluff loop after narrowly missing a dump truck who seemed to think that he needed the entire road for his fat ass truck. I was surprised that Sam did not huck a full bottle at his head through the window. We were hoping that we would run into the Colbert 1/2 marathon to cheer on Kim, a Tri Fusion member, as she took on this 13.1 mile challenging course. We got the report that things went well and she kicked butt.

Argonne was next. We kept a steady tempo up it and came smokin' down the other side. We eventually go to Plants Ferry where we fueled up again and shared some stories on how we could win Ironman CDA... that lasted about 10-15 seconds when we realized that it would be easier to change the weather. We headed further east and eventually ended up at Fitness Fanatics and chatted with Robin about the bike show. Looks like new bikes are on the way... don't know if there will be one under my Christmas tree though. If you have not been out there, I would recommend that you take a visit. She has some great cool weather clothing there right now that would be great for the upcoming chilly months. I showed Sam some things that he might like since hig long johns that he was wearing under his Russel sweatshirt seemed to showing its age.

With the wind at our face we headed towards town. We eventually got to Monroe where we headed up the dreaded hill. That thing is always a bear, and you never seem to make the light at the top either. Maybe that's good to rest since you can typically feel your pulse through your eyes. But after that, it's pretty much smooth sailing. We made it back in about 4 hours, not counting the stops. The weather was perfect and I think we have had it easy this fall.

That was my last big ride before Hawaii. Now it's pretty easy going.

Thanks Sam for hanging out with me today and making the ride a little more entertaining. Not quite as entertaing as this video that Tanya (Sam's wife) gave me of him riding his mountain bike a few years back. Check out the slow motion... it's a wonder he has kids: