Not so lazy that I haven't been riding Arastradero, but too lazy to write about it. After a few weeks away, Mei rode with us tonight. In her gentle way she gave me a small dose of guilt: "Has the group been riding? I haven't seen any ride reports." Yep, guilty as charged. We have been riding. I just haven't been writing. So this is for you, Mei.

Last night Laura, Cindy, Yvonne, Jill2, Paul, Mei and I rolled out, the hurried excitement of spring now mellowed into a lazy summer pace. No rush to beat the sunset. None of the cooped-up-all-winter energy driving us to charge up the hills. No anxiety about losing riders on the trail. We all know the route by now.

Instead, a distinctly mellower pace, perhaps a futile effort to reduce the sweat dripping into our eyes. Perhaps knowing that we spent all our leg power over the three day weekend. Or perhaps just knowing that there's plenty of time to ride when sunset is after 8:30–why rush?

Reminds me of being a kid in summer. When school first lets out you run around trying to experience it all, sucking up the freedom from books and sitting in a desk all day. Then July hits and you just hang out by the pool or creek or even in front of the TV. We complained about being bored, but in truth we were happy. Happy to know that every day you didn't have to do something new and exciting 'cause there's plenty of time. It's midsummer.

In the summer, that's what Arastradero is all about. It's not Downieville or Tahoe or even Annadel. You don't need to pack your bags, get your bike tuned up, arrange for carpools or (gasp!) fill that gas tank.

At Arastradero, you just show up, happy to know that every ride doesn't need to be new and exciting. That hanging out and riding familiar trails is what midsummer is all about.

Until next week,

-Janet

All I did was I asked, "So, Janet, you are not riding, but you are still writing the ride report, right?" "No, but Mei, you are writing it." *kicking myself* Why did I ask? Okay, here is my assignment.
Who: By first name initials, the participants are: J, J, J, J, J, P, C, E, M . Okay, they are Janet, Jeanine, DH Jill, Jill 2.0, Paul, Cindy, Erin (a new comer with a cross bike), Jeanne (new comer as well from my workplace), Mudworm
When: y'all know when. (6pm Monday)
What:
* As we all know, despite Janet's impressive speedy recovery from her surgery, the doctor has not given her an okay to ride yet, so she showed up with her big smile and hiking shoes. When the rest of us left our cars, we had a hard time deciding whether we should ride the parking lot side first before crossing the street. Janet happened to be hiking by at that point. She pointed to her left with her chin, "Go that way (parking lot side) first." Off we went. Once the ride leader, always the ride leader.
* Seeing that neither Lesley nor Yvonne showed up, I thought to myself that this time, we would have a relaxed time riding uphill not having to chase anybody. Oh, little did I foresee that Jill 2.0 and Jeanne would be racing, albeit friendly, uphill on almost the entire ride. When I made a comment about their speedy ascents, both smiling, Jeanne said, "Oh, yeah, I had to chase her." (Eh, why did you have to?) and Jill said, "It's good to be pushed."
* When Paul saw Erin in the parking lot, he made some remarks about having met Erin's father. It sounded like Erin's name was on her bike. I'm drawing a blank here what was printed on her bike and I missed most part of that conversation. Regardless, I thought it might make a pretty amazing story if I had any clue what was going on. Maybe others can help me finish this story.
* I had been reading about riding tips online. One article talks about corning by counter steering. So, soon into the ride, I decided to give the theory a try and next thing I knew, I was riding in the waist deep grass 15 feet off the trail. The group kindly offered some input to me about cornering. One thing I picked up was my bike was not good enough for doing that kind of riding. Okay, maybe that's not what was said, but that's what I heard and what I would relay to my husband. Later, Jill 2.0 stopped at one switchback and watched me go down. She gave me her feedback (thank you so much Jill!). She noticed that I was a bit rigid from my waist down and talked about separation between the upper body and lower body. Oh, wow! So far, I'd only heard about separation between the bike and the body, so this new degree of separation was totally new to me! I took that advice to heart and started doing salsa dancing on the rest of the ride. Well, nobody had noticed because I was always the last one on the downhill ride. Salsa dance on a bike is really fun!