Great Sunday Group Ride

Last night, I invited my parents to the Sunday ride. That meant we needed to add Mom's bike to the bike rack on truck and take it with us. Dad wanted to ride his recumbent bike. That will not fit on the existing rack on the truck, or the new roof rack, so he had to clean out the bed of his pick-up. We put air in the tires of both bikes and loaded them up for the morning.

This morning we loaded up (it's so much easier when I do the water and Gatorade the night before) and headed out. First, we picked up Rob, Marissa, and baby Vincent (a.k.a. Baby Franco) loaded their bikes on to the truck, and then headed to the meeting point at Target. Jack and Paula beat us there. Dave and Sierra followed shortly. My parents were late! Not to worry, it gave everyone time to run in to Starbucks for that last minute energy boost.

We headed out to Cibolo and began the process of unloading eight bikes from one vehicle, inspecting the variety of bikes, and then gearing up for the ride. We're beginning to work together as a team in that effort, but we're not there yet. Pete takes the lead and I run sweep making sure we don't leave anyone behind. After a brief railroad track crossing speech, we're off again. Finally across the tracks and the highway, we're off. Mom was amazed we'd already gone a mile at this point.

Finally across the tracks and the highway, we're off to enjoy a good ride with some beautiful weather. The group quickly divides into the hammerheads (fast group) and the slower ones who were enjoying the scenery. However, the whole group did a good job of waiting at each rest stop for the entire group and giving the slower ones a chance to rest and recover.

I was glad that we made it to the first stop sign which is 3.4 miles out. At that point, everyone decided to continue on. The group did well. Slow and steady wins the race was the plan of attack, and it worked. Dad struggled to ride slow, but did well trying to stay with Mom. He even took to off-roading a bit to slow him down. Mom just kept of trucking and stopped when she needed to. Robert and Marissa did great and baby Vincent was styling with his shades on in the trailer (rumor has it he even took a bit of a cat nap.) Sierra and Dave were awesome. Despite bikes that don't fit them well, they seemed to enjoy the ride, despite a couple of sore butts. Paula and Jack struggled a bit with shoes and pedals, but then became the hammerheads of the group.

I am so proud of everyone who rode today. Everyone toughed out the rough road and the sore butts, the aching feet and legs, and even the "heavy" traffic at the beginning of the ride. At the end of the day, the group did 13 miles in an hour and 42 minutes of pedaling. We averaged 7.5 miles an hour, but every single rider made the entire trip.

Afterwards, a bunch of us headed to Mom and Dad's for sandwiches. We had quite the spread thrown together with ham, turkey, and cheese sandwiches, some mini sausages, chips and dip. Then we had cheesecake, strawberry shortcake or three different types of ice cream for dessert. We were tired, well fed and ready to call it a good day!

Personally, I woke up with a numb pinkie finger today. I don't know if it's from riding, or my carpal tunnel and how I slept, or a combination of the two. So, one more thing to watch. I wore the new "bike" shoes again today. Although it was a slower ride, I did notice the soreness in my foot again, so I guess those are not going to work. Better to learn that on cheap shoes. So, now I know what having shoes that fit, sort of, will do to me when I ride. Tonight, after dinner, my legs are a bit more sore and tighter than I thought. But I rode 31 miles this weekend, so I should be sore!

Goals
Today's Miles: 13
Total Miles Achieved: 80.3
Financial Investment: $216.39
Total Weight Loss: 2