I'm Not Dead Yet!

But you'd never know it from the stats from my first ride in nearly 3 weeks. On as flat a route as you can get in Massachusets.

Now, I'll admit, I rode the first 30 minutes with a man who I'd put at about 70 years old. I bumped into  him in the parking lot where I start many of my rides.

Steve rode a 1973 Bridgestone 400. I wish I got a pic of that bike. He stayed in the small chainring and had what looked like a 30 tooth cog in the back which he never shifted from. This produced a top speed of about 10mph.

Steve, looking sharp in that striped wool jersey.

I think we'd gone about 2 miles when he stopped and started talking about going back. My intention was to put in 2, maybe 3 hours of riding so this was not an option for me.

As we exchanged pleasantries, a guy Minuteman Road club kit goes speeding by. Instinctively, I shout, "Go MRC!" and he gave a quick wave as he crossed the intersection.

Suddenly, I thought: hey, I KNOW that guy!



I bade Steve a quick farewell and sprinted up the road to try and catch whoever it was. Lucky for me, Boxboro Road in Stow starts going uphill pretty soon and I was able to grab his wheel.

I sat in, waiting for him to say something and sure enough, he did so I pedaled alongside and identified myself. He was Jim Lewis, MRC tri-guy and kindhearted paceline chatterbox.

Those are Jim's arms sprouting from my neck. Yes, he is wearing a watch on both wrists.

Jim was riding a spanking new Parlee (photo fail, again) and was just finishing up some kind of grueling interval where he was riding as hard as he could in top gear. He had to head back into W. Concord so I went along to "drop him off".

I kept going east into Concord, rode around part of the Charlie Baker TT course backwards, west on 225 to Westford then south on 110 into Littleton and wandered back through Acton and Stow before heading home. Had to do one lap on neighborhood streets to pass the 3 hour mark.
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So, it looks like I'm at it again. I'm going to focus on endurance/weight loss for now and see what happens. If I participate in any MRC group ride, I'll volunteer to lead any B groups if there are others that would go for that, otherwise I'll let the A guys know that they should not wait for me.