Hilarious Cargo

Date: Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Leave: 9:15AM
Return: 11:13AM
Distance: 25.66 miles
Average speed: 12.83 MPH

Since Sunday was Mother's Day, I decided to take a ride on Saturday instead. Justin and I had talked about going out to Hagg Lake and back, but he was a scratch due to familial commitments, and I didn't feel like blowing a whole day on a 110-mile solo ride. I ended up hitching up the Burley trailer and taking a nice, long ride out the Springwater Trail with Miles. The goal was to stay out of Mandy's hair for at least two hours, so I decided to set a mark of ~12.5 miles and to a good-ol' out and back.

I have to admit, the start was a little rough. Not only is Miles 40+ pounds, but the trailer itself adds a ton of drag. I was almost immediately regretting that I filled my bottles with just water and not Cytomax. Also, as we were coming to a stop where the Springwater Trail crosses Johnson Creek blvd, I almost fell on my ass because the balance of my bike was all off, and I unclipped the wrong pedal. Sweet.

The first couple of miles of the Springwater from my house is very choppy pavement, so it was pretty slow going, 12-13mph. I was working hard, too; it suddenly occurred to me that this was going to be a pretty good workout. Miles was being his normal hilarious self, singing and yelling the whole way. He was a little confused about our path and his ride, so he kept singing a song about the "Spingwatta Trailoo." He actually did great the entire ride, and had fun to boot. It was nice to have the company too. After around 82nd avenue, heading east, the trail gets a lot smoother, and that really helped me pick up the pace. I got to where I was sustaining a good 18-20mph clip, but really feeling it in my legs. It was like a long, shallow climb.

We made it all the way *almost* to the end of the paved part of the Springwater and turned around at just about exactly 12.5 miles. The ride back was faster than the ride in, but I was really starting to lose energy and almost out of water. Miles kept my spirits up and we were joking and laughing most of the way. I came up behind a crew of 50-somethings on $5,000 bikes at the 82nd street intersection, and after plucking along behind them for a bit, I passed them, much to their chagrin. I was almost home at this point, so putting a little effort into it, I broke away from them and could almost feel their shame at being passed by a dude on a cross bike with fenders pulling a trailer. I love it.