A ride and a bbq

So this morning was an organised ride from The Forums. We met at Brimbank park in Keilor and headed out North through Broady, up to Bulla and then back past Tulla airport to the park for a BBQ.

When I got up this morning I just wasn't in the mood for the ride and contemplated going back to bed and not doing the ride, but I needed to do the ride so off I went. By the time the ride started my mood hadn't improved much and I soon discovered that my legs were tired from going hard along the boulie yesterday.
Naturally I got dropped on the first incline, but that's ok cos I made it and eventually caught up to the group, but it was tough as I mentally and physically didn't really want to be there. I really don't know why I was in that kind of mood, I have never felt like that before at the start of a ride.
Anyway, we get to the first real down hill into a valley, as Jimmy calls them, and off I go, down on the drops and in top gear and I hit a top speed of 66.4km/h! the climb up the otherside though was a different story. I was in my granny gear and kinda mashing it at a cadence of around 50-55RPM and a speed of 7-8km/h. Even though I was going slowly I felt quite comfortable with the pace I was going - I wasn't wanting to stop and walk which was good. I may not be quick, but I get there in the end! The climb actually helped my mood a bit and I started to feel a bit more into it and started to enjoy the riding, which was nice.
When we got to the next down hill section we couldn't go as fast as it was a bit twistier and needed to slow down for the corners - ahh well, still got up into the 60's at one point :)
Once we all walked over the bike eating bridge and had another bit of a rest and some more food and gatorade we set off to climb the big hill of the morning and it was steep! At some points my gps was telling me that the gradient was 9% which didn't make me feel so bad about being in my granny gear doing a speed of 5.5km/h with a cadence of 45RPM. Not long after the road started to head skyward and most people had gone past me, I looked behind me to see Peter walking!! It felt good that I was still on the bike at this point. I can't remember if this was before or after I noticed Peter walking but Kenneth went past me powering on and yelling something about in his lowest gear and that he couldn't maintain it... I then rounded the corner to see him stopped at the side of the road. Again, this made me feel good that even though I was going quite slowly I was still going on the bike! I made it to the top of the climb w/out walking - YEAH!
At the top I saw a very welcome site, Mrs Jimmy had parked her car on the side of the road and had laid out towels for us to sit on and in the back of the wagon was lollies, biscuits, nuts and some water! Mrs Jimmy sure knows how to treat riders, she was just wonderful today :D

After a bit of a rest, we set off again with a slight detour to find toilets in Bulla for Heather and I and then we were homeward bound. Riding along the airport and then after we had passed it was into a massive headwind so I decided to get down into the drops and ride there for a bit to try to avoid as much of it as possible. While doing this I was sitting right on Heathers wheel and then later Ewan's and I was just hypnotised by their rear wheels... it was all I was looking at, which was probably good seeing as I was a few inches off their wheel, but it felt really good and comfortable to be doing that, which is great for me as I normally don't like being in the drops that much.

Once we got back the car's we all put our bikes away and drove down to where we were to have the BBQ. If the wind had off pissed off it would have been a really lovely, but it was still really nice. I had a nice steak sanga and lots of watermelon and a nice sit down. Just about everyone else was eating sausages and chips and dip and drinking beer or alcohol in general but I was strong and I resisted, although a beer at the end of that ride would have been really bloody nice.

Some stats from the ride:
Distance: 65.97km
Time: 2hrs 57mins 55seconds
MaxSpeed: 66.4km/h
Avg Speed: 22.2km/h
Calories: 2249
Max HR: 175
Avg Hr: 149
Avg Cadence: 65rpm (in a bunch I cruise a lot w/out pedalling)
Total Ascent: 576m
Total Descent: 581m (can anyone explain how this is different when we stopped and finished in the same spot?)
Casualties: I think my front wheel now needs to be trued as it is quite difficult to get the wheel on w/out the breaks rubbing - bloody potholes, although its not wobbly as such, so maybe the breaks have been moved or something... hrmm need to check that out!