Thursday Group Ride

The Continental Ski & Bike starts here at the Coffee Cabin on Rice Lake Road every other Thursday at 6:00 pm. I joined the bunch this last Thursday and had a good time to be sure. Earlier in the day, I gad ridden 41 miles down in the Moose lake/Sturgeon Lake area solo and decided to join this ride at the last minute after dinner. It's a no drop ride and does about a 25 mile loop north of the start on roads I know well, seeing that the ride goes right past my current residence. I started the ride strong at the front, but after about 8 miles, my legs said enough was enough. I was going to cut it short by taking the Schultz road back to the Rice Lake Road, but was talked out of it. My left knee has acted up again and was getting sore, but I eased off the gas and took it easy for the later part of the ride. I would catch up on the downhills and fall back on the climbs. I'm a rouleur, after all. That's how we roll. A nice group of people to ride with and I'll be a regular on this ride all summer.

So what's with the knee? A biff on the MTB, a kind of slow motion twister tenderized it, then a trip on the stairs over bent it. 66 miles in a day kind of put the hurt on it, so I rested up yesterday and skipped Heidi Jo's planned 50 miler today. Finishing a long ride by climbing Lester River Road would have been a slow torture, so I passed. I'm going to ride some flat stuff this afternoon, and next week, too, until the knee quits swelling.

Here's a link to the ride data and map:
http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=436730