"Hey guys, you up for a short ride this weekend? Around 50 miles?" Sort of a humblebrag, but also a measure of how much riding Jay and Richard have been doing this year that anything under 60 miles really isn't a major ride. Unless it has a mountain pass, I guess, but whatever. That was the plan. Some kind of weekend ride. As we got closer to the weekend the forecast looked a bit worse for the afternoons -- thunderstorms both days. We shifted to a morning ride, hoping to beat any rain. Then Richard noticed that there was an official Harbor to the Bay (H2B) training ride scheduled. The ride to & from the start of which would come up to about 50 miles. As a bonus the ride was organized by my friend, Tina.
I've kind of felt bad that I haven't run any organized training rides for the H2B this year. Part of that has been due to the bigger miles we've been doing all summer long. Anyway, we decided to do the H2B training ride.
Jay, Richard, and I met up in Washington Square to ride to the start/finish at Cold Spring Park in Newton. It was cloudy and HUMID. Really gross. I took my Diverge in case of rain. It has full fenders, disc brakes, and I could throw some rain gear into the trunk bag.
There were A LOT of runners out. We wondered if they were trying get their workout in before it got hotter and/or started raining. Suddenly I realized there was something sticky on the back of my left leg. It was really gross and distracting. At the time I thought it was chewing gum kicked up off the road, but in retrospect I think it was something that was on the bench I was sitting on while waiting for Jay and Richard. This doesn't make it any less disgusting. After trying and failing to wipe whatever it was off while riding, I pulled over. Amusingly, I did this right by my friend Jesse's house. He was walking out to go to shul and said hello. Jesse used to pass me every day on my bike commute in his minivan. He'd wave hello, we'd talk at red lights, and eventually, we rode together while he biked his daughter to daycare.
 |
| We were also passed by this recumbent duo while stopped |
After getting sufficiently cleaned up, we resumed our ride to Cold Spring Park. We had a ton of buffer time, but I forgot to ask the guys if they wanted to stop for coffee or something along the way.
We were the first people to arrive at the start/finish. After a bit people started showing up, including a largish group that started from the boathouse in JP. One of the riders included my friend Ji, who I had first met while I was doing a solo ride to Ptown on zero sleep last year. He's super fast and I knew I'd pretty much only be able to say hello at the start.
After some pre-ride instructions from Warren and Tina & a go round introducing ourselves we broke up into smaller groups. A woman named Pennie joined Jay, Richard, Tina, and me. The route for the day went out to the Weston/Lincoln/Sudbury area but often on roads that I don't usually take.
I was in the lead and was trying to set a very moderate pace. As it turned out it was far too fast for Pennie. We were going up the long steady climb on Newton Road to Weston Center when I heard Jay & Richard shouting for me to stop. Pennie had been riding well above herself. Additionally, the sun was kind of burning through the clouds making the sticky humidity feel even heavier. We'd been riding for maybe 30 minutes at this point. Even tougher, Pennie was wearing a reflective vest and a cotton t-shirt.
Cotton is really bad for exercising. It's heavy, it doesn't really breath, and it doesn't dry quickly. Pennie also about three liters of water in two bottles in her pannier as well as a heavy bike lock. In some ways this was good news as it offered a few ways we could make things easier for her. She doffed the vest and t-shirt (it's OK, folks, she had a jog bra), so that helped the cooling situation very quickly. I took one of her water bottles and we distributed parts of the U-lock between Richard and me. This meant she'd ditched quite a bit of dead weight and would cool down once we started moving again.
These are just very typical mistakes people make when transitioning from short city rides to long distance endurance rides. I remember riding out to Cape Cod with my wife back in the late 90's while wearing a very heavy cotton top and super overloaded panniers. I did my first century rides wearing sneakers.
 |
| We all learn not to do long rides in cotton t-shirts. Note the U-lock on the handlebar and heavy backpack too! Ouch! |
 |
| Everyone starts in sneakers. From my first 100 mile bike ride. |
Anyway, after Pennie had a chance to drink, eat something, and catch her breath, we re-mounted and continued on. Wow, the cooling effect of getting moving again felt great. We had stopped just shy of the top of the climb, so we also got to do a bit of freewheeling.
 |
| Gotta dig those stone walls. Olde New Englande, baby! |
 |
| Jay and Tina chatting behind me |
Riding through some really lovely side roads we approached the first official stop of the day at the scultpure garden at the DeCordova Museum. It turned out they had bathrooms and a water fountain (a bubbler as we call it in eastern Mass). I downed a whole bottle of water on this break. I also ate a Clif bar. The cloud cover kinda varied through the morning. I was just grateful it wasn't raining at all. Though it did get a touch misty after we left the museum. Tina joined another group as an effort to mix up the groups socially at this point.
Pennie was doing a lot better with the lighter load on the bike. We took some time to chat while riding. Learning to back off the effort while going uphill is an important skill for really long distances. There are times when you want to burn those matches on hard efforts, but generally, you just want to spin it all out.
We stopped by a store in Sudbury and then continued on to Ponyhendge. We also rode past Sherman's Bridge, a rough wooden bridge which I love to jam over for effect. Somehow we got in front of Ji's group and he and I got to ride together very briefly.
 |
| I think one of the rules is you have to take photos of sunflowers if you see them |
 |
| Got to ride with Ji. A brief treat. |
 |
| Ponyhenge. |
 |
| Tina, Ji, Jason, Pennie, and Jay |
The groups had all come together at Ponyhendge. At least I think it was all the groups. We split up again letting the faster groups go ahead of us. We took an off route longish stop at Brothers supermarket in Weston. It was great to sit down for a bit. We got a gallon of water, some gatorade, iced coffee, and snacks. I tend to think it's important to sit down when you're at a stop on long rides.
 |
| Our group at a stop light |
After the Brothers stop, we had the always fun plunge down Newton Road. This was the same long steady climb that caused so much tsuris earlier in the day. Now it was not only downhill, it was all in the shade. Zoom! After that, still more descending after we passed over 128.
 |
| The heat and humidity were getting to me, folks. |
It was less than ten relatively easy miles back to Cold Spring Park. At this point it was a new personal record for Pennie with each pedal stroke.
 |
| Pennie at the finish, justifiably proud and happy |
After congratulating Pennie, Jay, Richard, and I rode the five miles back to Brookline, with a nice just under 50 mile ride in the books.
As always, thanks for reading. Keep the rubber side down.
