By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) It was good to look forward to three rides in one week and all of them in the 40 mile range. There are some drawbacks to recovery for me, like leg fatigue and endurance but so far the joy of riding is still with me. So I decided to set up an easy Friday ride and do everything in my power to make it and enjoyable one. I have lost most of my fitness and spin so now I will have to slowly start over and try to get back to where I was last year. I have learned I will have to measure my efforts based on my improvements however slowly they may come. I got to Burger King to meet with Earth Dog, Dragon Slayer, Bugler, ME-109, Highlander and Minotaur. By 9am we were ready to head out onto Gilmore and head to Acacia.

It felt reasonably good to pull us to Acacia and turning west to Kirby. It was also a beautiful morning with little or no wind and reasonably warm. I took us south on Kirby and made it to Cypress before turning over the lead to Dragon Slayer and Minotaur. We made the turn onto Sanderson and ME-109 took the lead and ran up to Mustang ahead of us with Dragon Slayer not far behind. We then made the turn onto Domenigoni and reformed as a group before heading west towards Warren. I even managed to take a turn at the front as we moved at a constant 22 or 23 over the dry wash and towards Winchester only to notice Earth Dog falling off and ME-109 falling back to pick him up. The rest of us continued on till we got to Leon with Minotaur pulling for the Saddle. I tried to stay with them without spinning out and noticed we had outpaced Highlander so I went back to get him as we rode together over the Saddle and down to the Gas station on Menifee for a quick break.

We waited for quite a while till Earth dog and ME-109 arrived. It seems as if Earth Dog had a flat and it took time to fix it. Once they had recovered from chasing us we headed south on Menifee. The pace was a bit quicker than I like but we were soon past the park and headed to Holland and the climb up Revive. Bugler had decided to make a run at Revive and he tagged up on ME-109 at the bottom of Revive. I stayed back with Highlander and Earth dog while Dragon Slayer and Minotaur worked their way up Revive and waited for us at the turn out for a regroup.

We headed out again and moved towards Scott to make the turn east towards Leon. We made the turn and got maybe a mile before Earth dog flatted again. That repair took ME-109 out of the game because he was running out of time so he turned for home on Briggs and the rest of us made our way to Leon and had Minotaur pull us most of the way to Max Gillis. We turned east again and made our way to Winchester and then over the road and through the housing tract to Pouroy. We turned south and made our way to Benton before heading west again and making our way to the gas station on Winchester and another quick break. Once we were ready to head back towards home we got out onto Winchester and soon split into two groups. Minotaur, Dragon slayer and Bugler decided to make a run at the segments on Winchester while Highlander, Earth Dog and I set a more sedate pace north. We almost lost sight of or the first three as we got back to Scott Road but we expected to see them again at Winchester Farms. By the time we rolled by Holland they were already crossing Domenigoni and they decided to head to Chili’s for lunch. Highlander, Earth Dog and I stopped for a break at Winchester Farms and then headed back to Burger King and home to finish off a nice little Friday ride. I ended up walking the lactic acid out of my legs right after lunch and almost got a nice little nap in before running errands for my wife.