#8- Le Club
Date: July 8 Sun
Mileage: 41 (Bleriot)
July mileage: 179
Year to date: 1125
Joined the club for the first time since Spring Break, or maybe even winter. It's interesting (to me) that some people do many of their miles alone; I'm thinking of Doug and myself, while many LBC members wouldn't do any miles to speak of unless they're with the club; I'm thinking of fellow teacher Glen who only rides club. I tend to not ride much club due to 2 reasons (and subconsciously a 3rd): #1 I get many miles commuting and that in itself is a solitary endeavour and #2 give the rate of suburbanization and growth, many rides start far away from home, and I have a big problem driving to ride my bike when I have the parks and the city at my doorstep. The 3rd is that, being a commuter, I probably have a negative attitude towards many club members who put more miles in than I, but are people who I see as the problem. They drive their SUVs from the 'burbs to participate in a "training" activity and don't contribute much to what I see as an ecological, dare-I-say spiritual activity. Really I'm full of shit b/c they're putting more miles in than I, but imagine if even 10% of the 1000-member strong LBC were to begin commuting by bike?
Today's ride was listed as a 35-miler "My Louisville Ride". The 'Ville has put up several wall-sized (I mean building wall) portraits of famous Louisvillians such as Muhammad Ali and Diane Sawyer. The intention was to do a city ride and take some of these in. The first leg was yet again down towards Shawnee/Chickasaw. I've done that ride enough that I could stand some fresh, new viewage, but it's a serviceable urban route. We then went to the top of Iroquois Hill and then back home. I failed to mention that today's route started 1 mile from my house, up at my fav Douglass Loop. It certainly made it easy for me to get my coffee and muffin for a post-ride fill up. For all my snobbery, there were some familiar faces on this ride, including "Rick" who often rides a fixie. He's just a plain nice guy and is without any of the pejorative characteristics that I attributed earlier in this blog to "club types". His fixie, of which I did not take a pic, is a refurbished Windsor, which is otherwise a Mexican Cinelli, a model relatively sought after by the lugs and steel types. Bernice also attended. She is a 70ish rider extraordinaire who still puts in thousands of miles and duathlons/triathlons. My colleague Glen also attended. He teaches US History and Psychology. I knew that he rides regularly, but I can't convince him to commute, so he's not associated with the 'lance' and 'sheryl' clan from work.
I forgot that riding in the group has its advantages. The paces is a little stronger. You can "hide" some in the draft. I personally go up hills harder so as to not be seen as pansy ass. Today I received some nice comments about the Bleriot. The rest of the mounts were Treks and C'dales, with a smattering thrown in for good measure. It was a nice ride and it may behoove me to ride once or twice a week with the club for aforementioned benefits.
Ultimately, I ask myself July 8th whether I can train to do the "Family Camp Ride" Labor Day weekend. I'm sure I've stated here my wish to ride to Family Camp. It would be about a 100-mile solo century, with the tougher miles in the last 3rd. Can I do it? I can ride 40 somewhat comfortably, but those are 40 flat miles. I want to be able to do that ride strongly and confidently, not for sake of macho speed, but more so for the purposes of safety. It would be a very rural route on unknown roads and I would need to be as strong as within reason. We'll see how the rest of my July rides work out. I'm thinking of doing the 60 with the club on Wednesday. Maybe le Club can help me herenthere to meet my goal.
This is the group this morning at Wheelman's Bench. The rider leader's camera batteries were dead, so the honors went to me. Read up on the 'Bench' info.; it's sort of interesting. Co-worker Glen in to the left on the ground in the red jersey.
Mileage: 41 (Bleriot)
July mileage: 179
Year to date: 1125
Joined the club for the first time since Spring Break, or maybe even winter. It's interesting (to me) that some people do many of their miles alone; I'm thinking of Doug and myself, while many LBC members wouldn't do any miles to speak of unless they're with the club; I'm thinking of fellow teacher Glen who only rides club. I tend to not ride much club due to 2 reasons (and subconsciously a 3rd): #1 I get many miles commuting and that in itself is a solitary endeavour and #2 give the rate of suburbanization and growth, many rides start far away from home, and I have a big problem driving to ride my bike when I have the parks and the city at my doorstep. The 3rd is that, being a commuter, I probably have a negative attitude towards many club members who put more miles in than I, but are people who I see as the problem. They drive their SUVs from the 'burbs to participate in a "training" activity and don't contribute much to what I see as an ecological, dare-I-say spiritual activity. Really I'm full of shit b/c they're putting more miles in than I, but imagine if even 10% of the 1000-member strong LBC were to begin commuting by bike?
Today's ride was listed as a 35-miler "My Louisville Ride". The 'Ville has put up several wall-sized (I mean building wall) portraits of famous Louisvillians such as Muhammad Ali and Diane Sawyer. The intention was to do a city ride and take some of these in. The first leg was yet again down towards Shawnee/Chickasaw. I've done that ride enough that I could stand some fresh, new viewage, but it's a serviceable urban route. We then went to the top of Iroquois Hill and then back home. I failed to mention that today's route started 1 mile from my house, up at my fav Douglass Loop. It certainly made it easy for me to get my coffee and muffin for a post-ride fill up. For all my snobbery, there were some familiar faces on this ride, including "Rick" who often rides a fixie. He's just a plain nice guy and is without any of the pejorative characteristics that I attributed earlier in this blog to "club types". His fixie, of which I did not take a pic, is a refurbished Windsor, which is otherwise a Mexican Cinelli, a model relatively sought after by the lugs and steel types. Bernice also attended. She is a 70ish rider extraordinaire who still puts in thousands of miles and duathlons/triathlons. My colleague Glen also attended. He teaches US History and Psychology. I knew that he rides regularly, but I can't convince him to commute, so he's not associated with the 'lance' and 'sheryl' clan from work.
I forgot that riding in the group has its advantages. The paces is a little stronger. You can "hide" some in the draft. I personally go up hills harder so as to not be seen as pansy ass. Today I received some nice comments about the Bleriot. The rest of the mounts were Treks and C'dales, with a smattering thrown in for good measure. It was a nice ride and it may behoove me to ride once or twice a week with the club for aforementioned benefits.
Ultimately, I ask myself July 8th whether I can train to do the "Family Camp Ride" Labor Day weekend. I'm sure I've stated here my wish to ride to Family Camp. It would be about a 100-mile solo century, with the tougher miles in the last 3rd. Can I do it? I can ride 40 somewhat comfortably, but those are 40 flat miles. I want to be able to do that ride strongly and confidently, not for sake of macho speed, but more so for the purposes of safety. It would be a very rural route on unknown roads and I would need to be as strong as within reason. We'll see how the rest of my July rides work out. I'm thinking of doing the 60 with the club on Wednesday. Maybe le Club can help me herenthere to meet my goal.
This is the group this morning at Wheelman's Bench. The rider leader's camera batteries were dead, so the honors went to me. Read up on the 'Bench' info.; it's sort of interesting. Co-worker Glen in to the left on the ground in the red jersey.
Comments
-Laura