The Totally Temporary

Lil P at work

Lil P has been teaching me from the philosophies of Socrates' younger and much less famous, but infinitely more commonly practiced brother Mediocrates.

Saturday was test II of the Lil P training plan. This time he sent me back to where it all started. Back to tromp the cycling elders. Back to wreak havoc upon those who so kindly took me under their wings and taught me all the ways of the cycling world. Yes, dear reader, I got to beat up upon the elderly and infirmed!

Before the ride, Lil P filled me in on all the secrets of how to be the fastest without having to really work hard for it.

Step 1: Ride with older, infirmed, or noticeably slower folks.
Step 2: Lead them into believing it will be a mellow 50 mile easy paced ride then turn it up to 102 miles and not letting the pace drop below 19mph. Making sure they don't have extra food or water will help in distancing you from the crowd.
Step 3: When you can't drop them on a climb and you think they might nip you to the top, you have 2 options available:

1. kick the walker out from under them.
2. yank out their oxygen line (He prefers to call this the "death knell". (quotes added for his pleasure))

I don't know how survived before Lil P.

In all seriousness, I was completely fortunate for once and able to connect with some old friends whom I love dearly and haven't gotten to see, ride, or talk with much the past 3 years. They were there when I needed saving before. They kept me afloat, kept me motivated, kept me safe, kept me entertained without ever knowing how much I truly needed them at the time. I had most of the day to kill and they had a freshly mined 70 mile route. Due to some cue sheet errors and unmarked roads, we ended up with 102 miles but I'm not complaining, I loved every pedal stroke of the ride.

Sunday I met up with some old and new friends for a resurgence of the gravel grinders. Sadly, much of the old route has been recently paved. Gone are much of what we loved about those remote areas. The more cherished dirt roads have been graded and smoothed over. I'm not sure if they are preparing to pave them or just grading them in preparations for winter's toll, but the old rural gravel/dirt roads are dying up and that is very sad. One thing we don't need more of in this world is heat capturing pavement.