Hit the Ditch with Jeff, Sara, and Danny this afternoon. I haven’t been on the bike since the ride after I got back from Japan, so I was off the back. There have been few opportunities for after-work rides recently, with either rainy weather, early sunset, or general malaise getting in the way. Near noon, there were ominous dark clouds hanging over the windward side, but as ride time approached, skies became clear with bright sunshine. No sooner than we entered the trail, the clouds closed in again. There were no portents of rain though, just a canopy of white. We started as usual with the side loop. Danny high-sided off the trail at the first valley, his tire stopping on the boulder on the inside of the turn. It was a silent, ninja-crash. If he had laid still, I might have just passed him without noticing. At the switchbacks, I detoured onto the original line after Jeff said someone had been riding that way. My brakes were still cold, so I was going too fast at the bottom of the chute to make the transition onto the switchback line, so I lowsided in front of Danny and Sara. Weak.
Back on Government Road, we turned onto the Ditch. Halfway out, we came up behind a couple of horses. They let us pass. To avoid inconveniencing them by getting into the pass/repass cycle, we continued all the way up to the big tree without breaks. We passed two speedy jersey boys and two illegal grossers along the Ditch, then met the couple who started the ride just before us. After cooling off in the breeze at the tree, we took fat guy back down to the Ditch. Even though the light was fading with the sun already dropping behind the mountaintops, there was good lighting on the trail since all the trees along fat guy had shed their leaves. Both Jeff and I were feeling the lack of conditioning on the way back. Danny was not having any issues (Jeff said he had been secret training), and of course Sara The Power Queen easily left us in the dust. We passed a different pair of equally friendly equestrians on the way back to the trailhead. Post-ride beers and dinner were at the Kailua Town Pub.
Pictures here
D = 11.01 km (6.84-miles), Vavr = 12.9 km/h (8.0-mph), Vmax = 32.8 km/h (20.4-mph), T = 51-minutes (actual trail time about an hour and a half)
0 Responses to “Slow Pokes”