Toughest ride ever (for me)

Despite the weather forecast (50% chance of rain), Erin, Stephen and I headed out on Saturday morning to Cat Spring, Texas. (Nathan had his last weekend Band responsibility for the season.) First we dropped Stephen’s car off at the McDonald’s in Sealy. He had a Boy Scout campout obligation for Saturday afternoon – Sunday afternoon. Then we headed up to the Cat Spring Social club. We parked in a field and made our preparations. It wasn’t terribly cold, but it wasn’t exactly Texas warm either. We all started out in our tights, jackets and various under-layers.

At the first rest stop, we all peeled off our top layers. This was our first “real” hill ride. The trail out by Buffalo Bayou doesn’t count. Those hills are short, steep and over within 6 miles from home. So, by 12 miles (since much of it was up and down) we were pretty hot. I’ve attached a map of the ride with the elevation change shown at the bottom. We used the facilities, ate a couple cookies and a banana and headed back out.

Stephen rode with Erin until the second rest stop – I’d ridden with her for the first leg. I enjoyed being free to set my own pace. During one section (between 20 and 22 miles) I was proud that I didn’t have to shift off my middle chain ring for a pretty long climb – about 1.5 miles. Of course, there was also a period where I was less pleasantly surprised when I realized I was in the wrong gear to make it up a much steeper incline. That was tough. I was thinking at that time that since we were in East Texas and it seemed that we’d been going uphill an awful lot that we should really have been at “the top” wherever that was. I was wrong.

So, we met back up at the second rest stop. While there, I heard someone say “The rest of the ride is downhill except for the uphill part.” I looked around for who had spoken such words of wisdom so that I could let the air out of his tires. But it wasn’t clear. We had another banana, a couple more cookies and set back out. Stephen and Erin had pulled ahead of me. I was beginning to feel some regret about pushing so hard on the middle of the ride. Then it started to rain. At first it was just a few drops here and there, easily ignored. But, any of you who have been in Texas knows that that kind of rain isn’t long lasting. About 10 miles from the finish line the sky opened up. Shortly after that point, I passed Erin and Stephen pulled over and putting their coats back on. Stephen advised me that I didn’t want to get cold (when, oh when will I learn to listen to him??).

I seriously thought about sagging once I was good and wet. But, when I stopped to put my coat back on I realized exactly how much wetter I would get if I were to stand still and wait for a SAG wagon. I decided to forge ahead. Occasionally, the rain would subside, which is what made it possible for me to pull off and wait for Stephen and Erin as we made our second to last turn in toward the start point. That was about 5 miles out…all uphill. And inexplicably, against a driving headwind – and…more heavy rain.

We pulled back in to the Cat Spring Social Club parking lot and the sun came out. We wrung out our clothing, covered our bike seats and changed our clothes (as best we could). We had a barbeque lunch and sent Stephen off to camp with the Boy Scouts. Erin and I spent the rest of the day trying to get out of our own ways. It was probably quite comical from someone else’s viewpoint as two, reasonably intelligent women spent 40 minutes inside Target trying to find a notebook suitable for a Pre-Cal project. A trip to Petsmart was equally amusing (from the outside, at least). Poor Erin had to babysit some of her favorite charges – boys who like to wrestle – while I sat on the couch and allowed my brain to turn to mush. I slept like a rock until Riley decided I was late for our walk (at 5:45 AM) and barked until I got up and let him out.
http://www.conocophillipsbikeclub.org/maps/5_2009.pdf
Next week, we’re riding more hills. I’m hoping without the rain and the wind.