Fun & Fitness over 50

I met my friend and riding partner Charles at 6:30AM this morning in front of the Feura Bush post office. The weather forecast was for rain and thunderstorms all day as it has been for the past week and will be for the week to come apparently. Our only goal was to get back to my house by 9AM so we could get to church by 10.

Again, I let Charles lead the way on this one as this is his turf and he has been riding these roads far longer than I have.

This is a great time for riding. At 6:30 any day of the week there aren't too many people out and about but especially Sunday.

Most of our ride was on scenic but small and little traveled country roads with gently rolling hills. Farms, fields and historic houses. Panoramic views of the hills surrounding the area.

At one point we rode up Copeland Hill Road, not too steep but fairly long for me. I thought Charles was right behind me on this one but when I looked back he had dropped far behind. I thought, oh,oh, he probably knows something I don't. Sure enough I hadn't paced myself or held anything back. I made it up over the crest but the last couple hundred feet were an extreme effort for me. But from the confidence I gained from our last ride and subsequent climbs it wasn't as much of a mental challenge for me. However, I'm feeling this ride now as I write this like I haven't felt one for awhile. ;-)

I had a mechanical problem on this ride. The rear wheel moved forward out of the drop out on the right side. I have a habit of checking the rear wheel occasionally because of the problem I had with the old wheel breaking spokes. I looked down and the wheel was almost touching the left chainstay. The axle had moved down the drop out on the chain side. I reset the wheel, tightened up the skewer a little bit more and rode on. This is the second time this has happened. I hope the tightening did the trick. I thought I had tightened it up enough the last time.

The sky was dark and the air was still. Sort of ominous but I liked it. It was peaceful. Very quiet. We heard a few peals of thunder and it started to rain at one point but the rain never really materialized. A few hours later while we were in church, it really let loose. We dodged that one.

I plan on laying off the bike entirely tomorrow and taking it fairly easy the rest of the week in preparation for the 75 mile fund-raiser "Ride 4 Love" this Saturday.

Here's the route: