Cat Two Blues

Patrick informed me yesterday that my rival last year in a number of local races, Kristen Gohr has upgraded to a Cat 1. Enter Status Anxiety. No, I'm not concerned that I'm passing up the local crit this weekend to spend time with Patrick and stop thinking about crashes. More races soon enough.

Today Patrick and I are going on a exploratory ride of the New Hampshire Coast. This past Wednesday we had an adventure on my favorite group hill ride. The guys like to get the adrenaline going by pushing it on the hills. After about two or three hills, Patrick let me know (in a raised voice sort of way) that I was pushing the pace too much between hills and that he would like to survive the ride. Well, unfortunately a subsequent hill included a turn that Patrick was unaware of. As a result, we became separated from the group and had a nocturnal wandering trip back to our car. Good thing Patrick was able to figure out the car location, or I might have been sleeping in a ditch with my bike.

For today's trip into unknown territory - I'm bringing a map and some extra goos.