Road Ride from Helena

First off I finally got a new keyboard. Part of my poor spelling was due to a number of keys on the keyboard not working very well. Now I have no excuse.

I found that the Montevallo riders were riding from Joe Tucker Park in Helena to 280 and back on Highway 11. I was a bit scared as I knew that there is a moderate hill starting on 52 up to cross the highway. One of my biggest problems is warming up quickly so hitting this hill at the beginning was worrying me a bit.

I met the guys and everyone was nice and welcomed me on the ride. One thing that bothered me a bit is that as we were leaving everyone was checking to make sure they had ID. I asked if this was in case they were pulled over, but I was informed it was so they could quickly identify the body. After this nice bit of information I grabbed my license and we headed out.

Luckily they chose to ride to Alabaster to hit the end of 11. This road was pretty level and I was feeling OK as I fell in line at the second to back. I quickly realized that I was pretty bad at keeping in line properly. We got to the 31-119-11 intersection and headed across. My heart rate was staying low but my legs were burning a bit.

One thing that was annoying is that my Garmin appears to be damaged again. Every time I hit a bump (especially when crossing the railroad tracks) it would switch off. I kept having to turn it back on and restart it which is hard to do and keep in line.

We got to 280 and stopped to rest at the gas station. I ate the nutrigrain bar I brought and stood in the shade. I stretched a bit and by the time we were ready to head back, my legs were feeling better. We headed off and I decided to bring up the rear of the pack. I noticed that I felt better coasting down the hills (in which I would fall back a bit) but when climbing the hills I would catch back up with everyone. I seemed to be able to climb easier, but they never stopped pedaling whereas I enjoyed the rest while coasting down the hills.

The only problem we had with cars is a truck that displayed his displeasure of having to go around us by flooring the gas and only clearing us by a foot (he only missed the leader by few inches). I have terrible luck with riding on the road, but other than that it was a great experience. We got back to the park and they invited me to the Depot to relax after the ride, but I had a wedding to go to that afternoon, so I packed up and headed on home.

I will definitely try to ride with these guys again as I had a good time. I ended up riding about 36 miles and for the rest of the day my legs were burning. I really struggled with stairs and sitting for the better part of the day. Hopefully I can start riding a day or so a week on the road and see if it gets easier.