My Own Private Hill Ride

Wednesday night's Trek group is a hill ride so notorious my brother isn't sure he can keep up with them. And he placed fourth in his last mountain bike race. And he's been training hard the last year or so, compared to the previous 20 years when he only worked out like a maniac.

If he isn't sure he can keep up with them, I have no such doubt in my life. I know for a fact I couldn't even keep pace for the first couple of miles to make it look good.

I'm getting stronger and possibly even a little quicker, but with 40-something days to the MS ride (170 miles in two days, including a bunch of Ozark hills/mountains), I feel woefully unprepared. Roger is going to do this thing on a BMX with one gear and he'll smoke me with my 27 speed.

Anyway, I improvised my own hill ride tonight. Parked at the park at 87th & Lackman and went 87th to Candlelight and wandered through exurbian hills to 83rd to Pflumn. Took Pflumn to where it connects with Midland and rode a section of Midland I never thought I'd try solo. Climbed that unclefucker of a hill where Renner approaches Shawnee Mission Park. Gave a name to that hill, I call him Squiggy. And he didn't kill me this time.

At 67th & Pflumn, I saw the Trek Hill Ride coming across 67th. Fast.

Took Renner to 95th, wound Legler around to whatever connects with Santa Fe Dr., back to Pflumn and ultimately back to 87th.

Jennifer gave me a hard time for riding sidewalks along 87th, and since traffic had died down a lot, I went ahead and just hugged the shoulder instead of making myself a pedestrian. Light was fading, but my Aloha shirt was one of my loudest and at least I have reflectors. Gonna buy some flashy things since the days are already shortening.

After being buzzed by a high school asshead in a sports car, honked and yelled at, I went pedestrian and rode the sidewalk the last couple blocks to where I parked.

Those share the road signs? They have a silhouette of a bicycle on them, and I think a lot of drivers think the signs are an admonishment to those of us on two wheels. Because seriously, nobody tries to hog the road with a pedal powered machine that has no walls, seat-belts or airbags. Maybe we need share the road signs with a car's silhouette on it instead.

16.3 miles in 90 minutes. Roughly an 11-mph pace.