I was starting to feel jumpy as I hadn't ridden since Sunday in Idaho. I remembered that my women's
club has a hill climb training ride on Wednesday evenings, that meets 1.5 miles from the house. I
thought, why not? I had talked to the gal who puts it together, and she has said that they did have
mountain bikers show up pretty regularly - this is a road training ride.
So - me and 6 road gals and some coach guy. What was I thinking. I am definitely out of place, There
is still mud on my bike from the amb-id rides, my Fox gloves, and I have my camelback. One of the
gals says, "wow that's a BIG bike". Huh? I look around, she can't be talking about my dainty Kona...
I am very happy to say I held my own. The plan for the evening was to head out of town just a bit,
and practice some different kinds of hill climbs and sprints. First we did some sprints around this
corner and over the crest of a small hill, 5x. I run out of gears to move up into. The gals talk
about some guy who lives around there who likes to threaten violence to cyclists on "his" road. The
coach guy tells me I'm doing great, do I have any gears left? (one) The sprints involve pushing down
the road and around the corner seated in a high gear/cadence, and then shifting up to stand and
climb near the crest (the white mailboxes).
Then we head over to Jamieson Rd which has a twisty little canyon canyon
climb. I ride this as a little loop from my house for a quick fix a lot, nothing new or scary here.
Same thing, ride the canyon up at steady cadence, then a push about 100' from the top,do it
three times.
Well, this isn't hard. I was thinking this whole ride was going to be a killer work out. It was a
nice workout, but nothing that a good standard ride doesn't feel like. We did some how manage 14
miles, just what I needed to loosen up.
Weirdest roadie comment: "the reason I bike is so I can wear a bikini in the summer". That's it?
How joyless.
Penny S