Jun
8
The Long Ride
June 8, 2010 | Comments Off on The Long Ride
I’ve slipped into a routine with my cycling.
I’m usually on my bicycle when I’m commuting to work. It’s the same-old-same-old. I know the hills, I basically know how the cars are gonna act towards me, and I see the same Indian guy walking towards Harvard Square – he always acts as an excellent gauge of how late I am for work.
Sure, sometimes I change up the route, but you can only change it up in so many ways before it becomes impractical.
And sometimes I manage to sneak in a ride with my friend during lunch, into downtown and back.
One time I had to take a package to the FedEx in Harvard Square as part of a work related task. In this instance, I imagined that I was a bike courier on an urgent mission. I know, I know…I could’ve just ordered a pickup, but I wanted to give my cycling that day a different flavor.
One thing that I don’t do enough of is the Long Ride, which I think would be the perfect antidote to the complacency of my routine. I’ve been on a few long, relaxing rides in the suburbs ranging from 25 to 30 miles.
But the most exciting ride was a 52 miler with Charles River Wheelmen on some random Sunday. I opted to go with the fast group which was great up until the last seven miles where I hit the wall and my legs just didn’t want to push any longer. But that gave me a taste of what it’s like to ride in a group (PELETON?) as well as a taste of what it’s like to really push myself on the bike.
So I think I want to “take it to the next level” and start doing more long rides, hopefully with riders more experienced and somewhat faster than me (not so fast that they leave me in the dust).
Of course, there’s CRW, which seems like a sure bet, but I’m curious about other options, namely rides which begin in the Boston/Somerville/Cambridge area. It would be awesome if there were an informal group of experienced riders that left from Somerville on weekend mornings… at an average pace of 17 – 19 mph on rolling hills — maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
