Forgot How Fun It Is To Ride with a Group

For some time now, I've been riding weekends solo, and there is only so much motivation you can go on to keep riding fit.  So this past weekend, I went down to LA, and solicited for a ride, and boy what a response.  I had 36 responses to my Facebook post ... wow.  That goes to show where my camaraderie is.

So I proposed a route done many times before ... out to Baldy Village from Encanto Park.  I met my friend Steve and Rick (Ca Triple Crown veterans), along with the famous Vertical Bob, and a bunch of friends Rick invited over.  Great camaraderie indeed.

I had a little lower backache, and with all the climbing anticipated, it could spell trouble for me.  But much to my surprise, it felt pretty good as soon as I began to spin.  I can't say I was as strong as I was in summer, but I was pleasantly surprised how well I was able to do.

Even though my back wasn't feeling any issues, I couldn't really push it too much, for fear it would throw my back out.  We had a re-group at GMR/GRR, where we saw an acrobatic plane doing maneuvers.  At one point, he buzzed us at the ridge.  Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen that ... too bad I didn't have my video camera ready for it.  You had to see it to believe it.

I made it all the way to Baldy Village, but definitely nothing to write home about.  But then again, this was not meant as a training ride, but more of a fun get together ... social ride.  Uh, right ... a 62 mile, 6200 foot climb social ride???  Well, it is ... besides, according to Strava, this is an extreme ride, and did not attain an epic ride status.

Oh, and I have to mention the descent we made down GMR.  I normally don't like to do out and backs, so when I get the opportunity to do a loop, I go for it.  I liked Steve's response after coming down the hill "Wow, that is a really fun descent, I gotta come out here more often".  Here's a snippet of it, where we were "crushing it".

This was a lot of fun.  I guess I can officially ring this in as the kickstart to my double season.  I gotta do group rides more often.  However, I seem to have more fun when I drive down to LA for a bike ride. Somehow, we've lost that here in the Bay Area.  After all, bicycling is supposed to be fun.  I need to find more long distance riders to hang out with.