Perspective
I was a few minutes late for the ride yesterday, and missed the groups leaving. One of the things I like about Fat Frogs is the community of riders, and it includes people of all ages.
I was actually pretty late, and cruised out at about 21 mph, and eventually caught up with the B pace ride. Included in that ride are Joe, one of the shop owners, and Pat (pictured) and LeRoy. All three are over 50, and I'm betting over 60. But they are still cruising at 17-20 mph. I can only hope that I'm workin' it like that at their age.
Of course, they stop a couple of times to look at ducks and generally stretch out. Nothing wrong with that. I stopped with them and chatted before breaking off at the 10 mile mark to do my own ride.
And then there is Jay.
He caught up with me on the ride today while I was riding by myself. Jay rides in the 55+ age bracket. I was huffing and puffing along at 21 (I'm pretty burned by the miles this week, so I was really fighting to hold 21). Jay pulls along side and starts chatting. Asks how K is doing with the pregnancy, gives me some advice on life, just yapping away. I gasp some replies and try to hold my pathetic pace without looking totally gassed.
Then, obviously bored by the pace, Jay says "wanna catch my wheel?" meaning he was willing to pull me along. He had a solid disc on the back wheel that makes this cool ominous groaning noise. He slowly raised the pace up to to 25 where I had to let him go. I thought "damn."
I watched him go up the road and catch up with another rider, a kid in better shape then me. It looked to me like he chatted, pulled ahead, and the two road off together and disappeared around a bend. I came around that bend a couple minutes later, and only saw the kid. Jay had toasted him too.
I think he was just toying with us like a cat with mice. I hope he was! I want to be doing that when I'm 60!
I was actually pretty late, and cruised out at about 21 mph, and eventually caught up with the B pace ride. Included in that ride are Joe, one of the shop owners, and Pat (pictured) and LeRoy. All three are over 50, and I'm betting over 60. But they are still cruising at 17-20 mph. I can only hope that I'm workin' it like that at their age.
Of course, they stop a couple of times to look at ducks and generally stretch out. Nothing wrong with that. I stopped with them and chatted before breaking off at the 10 mile mark to do my own ride.
And then there is Jay.
He caught up with me on the ride today while I was riding by myself. Jay rides in the 55+ age bracket. I was huffing and puffing along at 21 (I'm pretty burned by the miles this week, so I was really fighting to hold 21). Jay pulls along side and starts chatting. Asks how K is doing with the pregnancy, gives me some advice on life, just yapping away. I gasp some replies and try to hold my pathetic pace without looking totally gassed.
Then, obviously bored by the pace, Jay says "wanna catch my wheel?" meaning he was willing to pull me along. He had a solid disc on the back wheel that makes this cool ominous groaning noise. He slowly raised the pace up to to 25 where I had to let him go. I thought "damn."
I watched him go up the road and catch up with another rider, a kid in better shape then me. It looked to me like he chatted, pulled ahead, and the two road off together and disappeared around a bend. I came around that bend a couple minutes later, and only saw the kid. Jay had toasted him too.
I think he was just toying with us like a cat with mice. I hope he was! I want to be doing that when I'm 60!
posted by Tom at 10:07 PM
1 Comments:
I love seeing people like that - there was a woman swimming next to me at the Y once and she was a shark in the water, it was beautiful. Flip turns to kill for, when her set was over she got out of the pool, silver hair, about 65. Just awesome.
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