06-12-07-The Tuesday Noon Ride.gpx-t0

Total and complete failure today! First, I forgot to turn on my Garmin until we were on Hwy 84, headed for Tripp Rd – so we had already done over 7 miles in under 19 minutes – argggghhhh!!! Second, I made the critical mistake of drifting to the back of the pack, where you can easily get yo-yoed off the back – and it happened to me when we hit the Olive Hill maze – argggghhhh!!! So, I quickly wound my way back to Kings Mtn Rd and sped down Woodside Rd to Roberts Market, where I waited for about 30 seconds and caught onto the pack again as they turned off of Canada Rd and headed up to Whiskey Hill. That’s good. But – then I drifted to the back again (dumb as a potatoe, that’s for sure!) as they turned off of Whiskey Hill and made a right onto Portola Rd to head over to Corte Madera (near Alpine Rd) – well, surprise, surprise – I got dropped on that first steep little hill on Portola Rd that starts just as you turn off of Whiskey Hill – and now I was on my own (again!) – I the slowed my pace, but made a steady push towards Alpine Rd, hoping upon hope that I could catch back on at the intersection of Portola and Alpine (meaning, I would skip the Corte Madera climb – yeah!) – and that plan worked! It turns out that the pack does a re-group at that intersection, since the pack splinters apart so badly on Portola Rd and Corte Madera – so I just sat there for about 5 minutes, until most of the riders had re-grouped, and we blasted off again down Alpine towards Junipero Serra and onto Foothill to get back to Page Mill. After the re-group, I had no problem staying with the pack – and this time I made a point of staying in the front group of 5 or 7 people, and this worked out great when the surges happened towards the end. I even got a chance to participate in the final sprint towards Page Mill – except I didn’t realize that this is what they were doing – if I had, I could have probably come in 3rd or 4th on the sprint! So that was the small part of the ride that actually went well for me – the rest was a disaster! Oh, well – it WAS my very first Tuesday Noon Goon ride – and I heard that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the real fast days – and it certainly WAS real fast!! So all in all, I suppose I could say, “wooooooohooooooo!!!!” with some pride and legitimacy – at least I didn’t give up and go home after my first setback! Oh – and you KNOW it was fast, since even with several miles tossed in at a lower speed when I was by myself, the average speed for the entire ride was still up there at 22.2 – so the main pack probably averaged closer to 24 mph for the day – a lot faster than yesterday’s pokey speed of ‘only’ 21 mph!! Next time, I’ll ride smarter (and, remember to turn on the damn Garmin at the start!) and see if I can hang in there for most of the ride – I’ll get my next chance in a couple of days, on Thursday – I think they do the Canada College loop on that day! I really must remember to work my way to the front by the time we get to that loop and start out near the leaders, so I can fade on the climb and still hang onto the pack for the return flight (or, I could just skip the loop and latch back on when they swirl on by after doing the Canada College loop!