Saturday's Ride with Adron

I got a call on Thursday from my husband's best friend asking if I'd like to ride with him on Saturday.  R2R was riding in Sealy, and (we'll call hubby's friend) Adron's house is much closer than that, so I said sure.

He asked how far and I told him 30.  He asked if I could do 40 and I emphatically said NO - I am not ready for that.  The farthest I've EVER gone is 24.  He said ok.

I've known Adron for years, and I'm friends with his wife, but I'm not really friends with him, you know what I mean?  It isn't that we aren't friends, it is just when we are together he is with P and I am with his wife.  But even with that said I had complete trust.  I told him it was important to me that he stayed with me, helped me if I had any problems, etc, because I'm a newb.  He said ok.  I trusted him completely with the route.  That was funny - P kept asking me where we were going and I kept telling him to call Adron.  I really didn't know or care.  (I'm like that with R2R also.) 

So first we did this thing where we dropped his car at a park, then back to his house.  He switched my pedals to put cages on, which I'm going to try.  Then we left.

This ride was a number of firsts.  First riding in real traffic (on the way out to lonelier country roads).  First left from a traffic light (not a fan, but managed).  First ride through construction (on the non-traffic side of the barrier in the gravel - got really good practice mounting/dismounting with all the stopping to walk around obstacles).  First time over railroad tracks on my bike (LIVED!!!!).  First time riding from Houston to Katy AND BACK.  Yup.  The route was a little long.  But we'll get there in a sec.

Adron and his wife both asked me in the end if I learned anything.  I did.  I learned a lot.

I learned that I need to usually downshift a bit before stopping, because I tend to be in too hard a gear when starting. 

I learned that my bike has a balance point (duh) and if I find it with both my feet on the ground before trying to start, I experience a much smoother start.

I learned that it is much easier for me to find that balance point when I'm not panicking because I'm pressed for time (i.e. at a 4 way stop with a car that won't go even though I'm motioning them to go).

I learned that (I think) the numbness in my legs is because my saddle is too wide at the rear.  I'm going to go look at new saddles this week.

I learned that I should shift my grip early and often to avoid the numbness in my arms, and I finally felt more comfortable taking a hand off for more than a millisecond at a time.  (I still have a long way to go, but I was proud of this one.)

I learned that I could go a lot farther than I thought, since we went 38.4 miles.  But I'm not gonna lie - those last 8 miles were rough.  I was making my marathon pain noise.  And I think we stopped like 3 times.  It really was about 8 miles too far.  But we finished.  And that is all that counts right now.

And lastly, I learned, and I quote from Preston's text "Adron has a poor sense of time and distance".  I showed this text to Adron and he laughed and agreed.  That might have been nice to know ahead of time.  But he did push me way beyond what I thought I could do.  And I survived.

Perhaps I even thrived because I wasn't even sore when I woke up on Sunday.  At least not in my legs.  My tush would have protested a saddle and my triceps hate me, but legs were simply tired, not sore.

When I got home on Saturday, I proceeded to eat ALL THE THINGS.  And it was gooooood.