8/23 Ride Report - Recovering from the "Recovery Ride"

Hi VVs,

You guys saw the e-mails... Tuan said Saturday was to be the “Balls to the Wall” ride for our fast riders, and Sunday was going to be the nice, slow, recovery ride with rookies like me. This was my thoughts until...

The Capt Show Up – wait a minute... Capt said he was NOT going to ride because he was training for the marathon and only had 5 weeks left. What is he doing here??? Turns out he ran on Saturday so he would be able to ride with us on Sunday. Things might not be so bad though. Upon close inspection, this guy is pretty beat up! Capt had those menthol medicinal pads on both legs, and he was walking kinda funny. There may be hope yet!

The Scots (aka The Animal and The Centurion) were talking about how hard their Saturday ride was. Scot D was saying he didn’t have the zip in his legs like normal. I like what I hear as this seems that we will definitely have a nice, slow, chatty ride where we can actually socialize and talk to the new recruits.

Tan and Nancy also came back also from their European trip, as well as a female friend of Billy D showed up. With Linh, we will have at least 3 ladies so I know that some of our VV (nicer) riders will be courteous and escort the ladies at least. Billy P also came back from his honeymoon. Good... not all of the fast guys will be riding fast.

The start of the ride was good. Tan was video taping so everyone wanted to look nice and not all worked up. Nice and slow to the first break area... that is until we get to PCH then... ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.

Scot D I think was the one who initiated it and he dialed it up to 25 mph. Didn’t this guy say he didn’t have the zip. Then Duc, Dashaan, Capt, and The Animal all took their turns at the front. What part of “Recovery Ride” didn’t these guys understand???

Then we hit the 133 route. Man... Capt must have some pent up energy riding with rookies the last couple of rides, or it’s those funky new yellow Lance Armstrong shoes that he was wearing, but he unleashed a “Hell Hath No Fury” climb up the 133. For those don’t know, 133 is a climb and we were going like 26/27 mph. I was screaming at him and Scott M to slow.

From then on the rest of the ride was all a blur to me. I think there was a flat somewhere on the way back so thank goodness. After the ride, at least we had our usual coffee gathering where I could drown my pain in the visual environment. And yeah, the usual consolidation praises from the fast riders like “you were fast today and hang an extra 15 minutes with us” and “pain is just weakness leaving the body”. I know better though. Off to do more training, or looking at how much more metal I can shave off of my old clunker J I was so tired that I had no energy to go to Mac’s Party. Sorry I miss this Mac… but I heard from the guys that it was a good party.

If you miss this ride, you missed a good one!

Until next time,
Phong