Let’s take today’s ride easy

There was nothing easy about today’s ride (I started this blog on Thursday). Who does the Stone arch ride in September and then adds an additional 30 miles to that ride?

Joe called and said “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s ride out to St. Paul and do the Ramsey hill.” My response, “Ramsey Hill? Are you crazy? How about we do Grand Ave instead?” (Ramsey hill is a 2 block 15% grade, Grand is a 4 block hill at a steady 4% grade) Few minutes later I said, “How about this, we meet along the Luce Line trail, go downtown, and do the stone arch ride (35 mile route with 4 major hills) and MAYBE we do the Ramsey Hill.” What was I thinking? I just went from his level of difficulty of a 6 to my new suggested route a level 12. We decided to play it by ear.

I left my house and met Joe along the trail we headed to the stone arch. I’ve never done this route but it turned out to be 17 miles to the stone arch from my house. Normally the ride out to St. Paul is crazy fast but we took it easy. We stopped at the usual gas station for a Red Bull after I told Joe I can’t talk while we were climbing the Smith Bridge (2 mile climb). I think I shocked him—I admit, I’m always talking! Hey, I had to conserve energy that’s a long climb.

We continued on the route. I told Joe that I was debating about using my granny gear up Ohio Street. He was on his compact I was on my triple. To be fair I didn’t use my granny gear—but OMG that was much harder to go up that street then it was the first time in the spring. The minutes between the top if the High Bridge and the bottom of Ramsey is the most nerve racking moments. Can I get up that hill? Will this be the time that I have to walk? Should I just chicken out and do the side streets? Panic was clearly written on my face. Up until a block before the base of Ramsey hill I was still debating my route. Take the easy way up or concur the hill and be happy with my achievement? I haven’t climbed something that steep in a long time—I didn’t know how I would far. At the last second I turned to Joe told him to get in front of me and I’ll do the hill. Being happy with my achievement was much more important then taking the easy way out. He was a little taken back by my directness. We got to the top my heart rate maxed out at 180. I stayed out of my granny gear. A few choice comments came bursting out of my mouth once I got to the top. The young pedestrian crossing the street got a good laugh at my outburst. I acknowledged his laughter by saying “that hill sucks!” One of these days I’m going to be laughing at the Ramsey hill!

On the way back we stopped at Freewheel Bike shop to get a smoothie. 70 miles went by quickly although it took much longer to complete then most 70 mile rides. Oh well, it was fun.

On a side note, this past weekend my first cousin got married. Most of my family from my mother’s side was there. I haven’t seen a lot of them in 10 years. Oh how everyone has changed. The biggest change was my mother’s perception that now that I’m the only one not married out of her 7 children that it was time that she found someone for me. Her exact words were “Madonna, It’s time that I find you a husband because obviously what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working.” 30+ years and I have NEVER had the pressures from my mother to settle down. She has always stressed that I need to find the right one and that time was not an issue. She enlisted my aunt’s help in her search. I’m not sure if the Captain Morgan was clogging her judgment but she tried to set me up with Jason—who turned out to be the biggest player in the room. Hey, two can play this game. At the end of the night he was chasing me around. Mom, don’t worry it will happen—I’m just picky.