A Little Help Here

Ya know, I've always been known to be an outcast, a loner. Even as a kid in elementary school I didn't get good marks in the "works well with others" category. It just wasn't really my thing. You could blame it on me having just one sibling and she was six years older than me so I was basically at it on my own growing up. Or, it could just be my personality. Either way, I sure was glad to have some help this past Sunday.

As I continue my training for my first century ride coming up in September (Shenandoah Valley Century) I find myself on longer and longer training rides. This past Sunday was supposed to be a 50-mile ride. As many of you may well know, 50 miles by yourself can be a loooonnnng ride. Every long training ride I've done up until this point has been solo. I can set my own pace and leave when I want to and take a quick break when I want to. I'm not confined by riding in a group. However, my thoughts on that changed over the weekend.

A good friend of mine has been trying to get me to ride with him and we just haven't been able to work it out. But we finally managed to get it done. He was coming off a minor procedure on his back and needed to get back on the bike for his own sanity. I, on the other hand, felt like it would be a great time for us to ride together and learn something about riding. My buddy set up a route for us to ride and I was going to meet him about 15 miles into the ride. Well, due to my lack of map reading skills I ended up misreading the map and taking the way I THOUGHT he laid out the route. My bad! When I finally met up with him I had ridden about 4 extra miles than originally planned. No biggie I thought. I was feeling good and excited to ride with my friend for the first time.

We hopped on our bikes in New Hope and started riding a nice conversational pace. What I didn't realize was that just by riding with him I was keeping my pace and cadence higher than I had previously been doing. I had no clue until I looked down at my computer. I just kinda laughed to myself and kept spinning. Other than this chasing after us out of no where:

and me almost riding into a car head-on to avoid the killer dog we had no major issues. The sun was shining bright and the sky was as blue as could be. About another mile or so into our ride we both looked up and the sky had that Tornado Alley look to it. We thought we would miss the storm or that it would blow through quickly so we kept pedaling. After another 10 minutes passed my buddy said, "Stay on my wheel. We're going to try to push it into Weyers Cave." No problem I thought. I was feeling good and Weyers Cave was only about 5 minutes away. Then we saw what had to be this:

Yeah, that's right. I think it was the lightning bolt that Zeus was missing in the Percy Jackson series. It was at that point my buddy suggested we pull off at the Shenandoah Valley Airport and see if the storm passes. Well, about 30 seconds after we reached the airport and hoped off our bikes the storm blew in. It was more like what I picture monsoon season to look like. We ended up in the airport terminal only to find the roof was leaking in two places and we couldn't see 20 yards in front of us. The layover was good and bad. It gave us a chance to chit chat but it also gave my muscles a chance to cool down and get tight.

As the storm finally passed we jumped back on the bikes and continued our ride. The sun was now out again and we were making good time again. That is until I looked ahead of me and saw a climb that I was definitely not ready for 40 miles into the ride. Not to mention a jacked up pick-up truck was behind me revving the engine. I pulled over and jumped off to stretch out my now aching back and hamstrings before making the climb.

I'm sure that the climb wasn't nearly as bad as I was making it seem in my head but as I started up the climb I heard my legs go, "You idiot! What are you doing?! You're not freakin' Cadel Evans!" But nevertheless, I kept pedaling. This is where I'm so glad that I had a riding partner. I managed to stay focused on his wheel even while he was effortlessly pedaling away from me. I managed to make it to the top and we continued on our journey. Yes, I probably said some things about him in my head that I have to repent for but I'm still glad he was there. He was able to stay with me and keep me going even when I was dying! But he never made fun of me or made me feel like crap because I was an inferior rider. He just kept talking to me and pushing me through it.

So, with that being said, I'm thankful to have given up my loner status for that day. It made a world of difference and it reminded me of just how much fun cycling can be. It reminded me of all the times as a kid me and my buddies were pedaling our BMX bikes all over town. Yes, you had to go over all kinds of terrain but it was fun because you were with your friends. And it's after that Sunday ride that I'm thankful to have a riding buddy once more!