Thursday Night Eastern - Cut Short

After work parked at Sumnervale and promptly discovered I'd left my bike shoes at home. Bah. Only had my Keen sandals or some Chucks, so while I waited for Nelson to arrive, tried both out and settled on the Chuck Taylors cos the Keens were too wide and sorta angled sideways badly...    He arrived, and we got rolling, up the El Kapitan, climbing, ever climbing.  I kept my pace slow, so that I wasn't gasping for air too much, and I had a few more dabs up in the rocks than usual, because of not being attached to the bike.  Stopped for Nelson to adjust his seat but otherwise a good climb.

Across Evans (getting ready to open !!!) and up onto the Goddles. 

Here's me on a smooth bit.

And me just after that first grunter from Evans.

(Pics courtesy Nelson's MMR..)

Heinous climbing in these shoes, with rocks knocking me off kilter all over.  Not surprisingly, Nelson got way ahead, while I struggled on behind.

I found him on the ridgeline and we had a bit of a rest.  And then, my phone rang:  

"Where are you?"  

"Top of the hill, why?" 

"They're going to be here at 7!"  

"What!?  I thought they weren't going to be there til 9?"  

"Nope."  

"Fine, I'll turn back."  ...6.44pm 

In some ways, a relief, cos riding in these shoes was tricky, so, Nelson headed on and I turned back and had a solo ride back.  Much easier going the other direction with some downhilliness assisting the getting over of the rocks.  Feet moved around a fair bit, and something I noticed, that must apply to flats, is that I was holding onto the seat a lot more with my thighs.  Had a good flowy ride back and met about 5 riders coming the other way.  

Across Evans and into the Captain.  Nice flow down here too.  Cleaned everything as usual and had a jolly fine time doing it.  Just gone 7 when I got back to the car, and half an hour later I was home.  As it turned out, "they" (Paul and Justine) didn't turn up til 9, so I bloody could have stayed out there after all!!!

Only a 9.2 km ride for me, with a measley 346 climbed.