Girls Ride

I was invited to go out on a "girls" ride last Thursday. I said "what the heck and I'll give it a try." They had picked trail 396 to do, which is a moderate to difficult trail. There are two long climbs in the beginning and then more uphill. Once to the top, it's pretty much all down hill.

Side note: I am the type of person who always assumes that any and all riders are better than me. Silly me......

So we meet at the trail head and 6 others that showed up. Right out of the gate the others said," they didn't want to do the first climb" and opted to take another route around the mountain. Right then I knew this was going to be a long ride. At every intersection we stopped. Once you stop, they all start talking... I guess that's the rule??? After riding a little bit I found that they were "not better than me." This is a group of mostly beginner riders, or one's that just want to get out and ride. Nothing wrong with that, I was just thinking it was to be a "pack of hard core girl riders". So I give them credit. Since I ride with "the guys", my skill level is much better. anyways, they really liked to stop and talk, and talk a lot. It may only be about 5 -10 minutes, but that is too long... your heart rate goes down, your legs start to tighten, then to start up and ride again it seems even harder. But whatever... it's their ride. ;)

We finished up the ride, it wasn't that bad, just really slow! They said they were doing Granite Basin the next week, it's more technical out there, maybe other people will show up depending on what ride it is, so I agreed to go again.

Well yesterday I went to Granite Basin, yeah not much difference. There was a new girl who was really good. She did the Whiskey Off Road 50 miler and finished 8th in the women. Her name is Sarah and is sponsored by Vassago. No, not an Italian pasta company......they make bikes. She was very nice, so we rode mostly together which made the ride a little less slow than it really was.

I was thinking if they don't like climbing on 396 then what are they going to do at Granite. Well they managed to find the really mellow climbs with nice down hills and they looped a lot. It wasn't that bad, but the talking was way worse this time. I believe we were stopped at one intersection for at least 15 minutes! They were killing me!

I did however agree once again to go out with them next week.. mainly because they didn't know what trail to do and I suggested Camp Pealstein. So, since it was my idea I guess I have to go. But I think after that I will only go on occasion when I want a really mellow ride. The last couple I didn't even get my heart rate up or breathed heavy!