on the good side - breakin' 'em in slow

Over the weekend I got a call from one of the guys who says he wants to try the MS150 next year, and wants to start riding with me. He just got a road bike, and he's rarin' to go.

I told him we'd start in October. Right now I'm never leaving the house planning on doing less than 50 miles, and I know he's not ready for that. He said, "It's OK. If we go for a while and I have to turn around and go home, I'll just do that." So I said, "OK, Sunday morning at 7:00?" He balked. Too early. Well, unless you want to do it in the heat of the afternoon, that's when it happens.

Still, when I planned on doing 20 miles Sunday night, I called him. I said...we can do something smaller, like 15-20 miles, and he was in. After dinner, it was drizzling out, and I thought...I don't know if I want to go, but it's worth a try. I pedaled over to his house, and we looked at the sky for a bit. In the end, I took him about 8 miles at 16 miles an hour. Then the rain got miserable and we quit. We also quit because he was pretty much worn out. So, I guess it's a good thing we didn't try anything more. At first that sounds pretty lame, but I remember back to March when I started. We went about 15 miles the first day, but we were going a bit slower...like 10-12 miles an hour, and it was a beautiful morning. Considering I got him out in miserable weather to do 8 miles at 16 mph, it's not a bad start.