Martha's Vineyard

Can we say SWEEEEEET weather last week? OK I live in the North East and the last few weeks have been 'wicked' hot (as they like to say 'round here...I'm not originally from these parts...but I pretend). And then...the weather snapped and it turned BEAUTIFUL, just in time for me to go on Vacation. A much needed respite and some nice RR with a good friend on the Cape, which also included a fun trip up to Maine too. But anyway, I got there last week in time to catch the ferry and go on over to Martha's Vineyard for an awesome bike ride. It was perfect weather basically. Sunny, with a cool breeze. Me and my friend and 3 others joined the fray of fun. It started off adventurous as I haven't ridden with more than 3 people total, so the group of five was an interesting mix for me. We trekked about 17 miles in the ride and the three others went on ahead and did a bigger loop at the end (so their total was 50 miles) and me and my friend took the easy pace and scenic route.

OK really scenic. We got to a little town and there was this cute little fish shop where you could order fish, including lobster, and sit on lobster crates outside the shop. I made a comment to my friend that I've never had lobster in the LOBSTER form...as in "hey...I want that guy there who's crawling around"...I think I've only had lobster bisque or something like that. Anyway, my friend tells me that if I'm going to have lobster that this is this the place to do it. So halfway into our bike ride...we sit down to have a nice 'snack' of a small lobster. You know, a nice 'light' snack, just pure protein dipped in butter. UG, it proved not to be as detrimental as it initially sat in my tummy, but slightly humorous at the same time. Who has half a lobster halfway through a 35 mile bike ride? Sounds extravagant, but that is definitely NOT my life. (just a poor grad student here). But I think the event made me laugh the rest of the bike ride. Our detour with the lobster allowed the group of three to join up to us with perfect timing as we re-grouped.

Then onward and forward to the "hill of death". I decided to take the HOD challenge because I thought it might be interesting. The turn was quick and suddenly I find that I'm on this HILL and I've just down shifted too late and snap, crackle and pop...I've dropped my chain. Lame. Anyway I sort myself out the other 3 are already ages ahead of me, while my friend has decided to skip the HOD and go on ahead. The ride up was interesting, but what got me was all I could think was "this is a really crappy hill pavement job and I'm going to somehow have to get my sorry self DOWN the hill". I did manage the downhill with a lot of breaking and some praying that I didn't die. I made it down. With two out of the other three who had gone up waiting for me to cross traffic and then PPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTT Bye, bye back tire. I have to say it was a spectacular sound. I've never flatted in that way, it was truly amazing. We quickly changed out the culprit tire and me and the two who were waiting for me were on our way.

Now I'm not a speedy person as in I don't usually see about 15-17mph on any given ride. But here I am with two much stronger riders, we need to catch up to my friend and her husband lest they think someone died. So we were OFF like mad. Since I don't typically train with other people, I'm not that used to drafting. But I knew I'd be dropped like a bad habit if I didn't hang on their wheels for dear life. I managed the crazy drafting and had SO much fun. I was in so much concentration mode, I didn't check out my speed much but it was over 20mph. To me that's so cool, because there is no way I could do that on my own for very long. We found the others and headed out from there.

It was a GREAT day, that's for sure. The rest of my trip was pretty awesome too. Maybe later on that fun.