Rosaryville group ride.

Nobody wants to show up for my rides, so I’ll weasel my way onto other rides.
Yesterday an old buddy I hadn’t seen in months, Peter put a ride on at Rosaryville.
Ride started at 8:00.
Damn I hate early rides.
I’ve realized though that when I really start base training (which I should be doing now), I’ll have to start getting to the trail heads early.
So this would be good practice.
He had made mention that he’d get 2 loops in (20), maybe 3 (30 miles).
That would do me good.
Don’t know if I could do a 3rd, but things change when you have peer pressure working on ya.
Had a good turnout of 8-10 people.
There were a few familiar faces but only 2 that I knew by name.
We went through the stanadard "Hi , my name is …..", where upon I proceeded to forget everyones name immediately.
I think I try too hard to remember names and faces.
We should all go by our names we’ve made for ourselves on the net.
Its got to work better, especially if your known as Gorilla and you resemble one.
We did the first loop counter clockwise.
Trails were still firm from the nights cold temps.
Uneventful other than I can say I wasn’t the slowest rider.
Its always a small boost to the ego when atleast one other rider is slower than you.
We lost half our group at the end of the first loop but added 1 more rider who showed up at 9:30.
Unfortunately, one of the riders who left was the "slow rider".
With him gone, the title fell upon me.
Everyone has there place in a group ride and this seems to be mine most of the time. Its better than being the "whiner" or the "guy who has the mechanicals". I was happy to assume my title again.
Theres too much pressure being mid-pack.
The trails started getting sloppy as the temps went up.
I guess the 8am start was a good thing.
We all realized a 3rd loop wasn’t going to happen.
Peter had a slideout due to the now slick trails, so the conditions were turning to shit quickly.
I was beat by the end of the 2nd loop but I’ve been telling myself I need to push the limitsof my comfort zone.
You know. That time or distance where you start wondering why like riding a bike.
I rested up for 10 minutes, than set back out.
Stayed off of the new stuff that was the muddiest and did some road.
It wasn’t good riding, but it was pushing my limits.
Ended up with 25 1/2 miles but more importantly , got a total of 3-4 hours saddle time.
I was completely beat. Rest of my day consisted of pushing buttons on the tv remote and planning my next ride.
seeya