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SPECIAL HAPPENINGS Metric-a-Month Ride Series Beginning on January 15th, I'm starting a "Metric-a-Month" series that will be patterned after our Primavera Progressive Ride Series: 1) we'll start off with nice and easy 100Ks (think flat and a tailwind) and work our way through the year, hopefully peaking in July or August (in time for one of the late summer/early fall organized 100M centuries) and tapering off at the end of the year; and 2) like the Progressive Ride series, bad weather will just push back the listed ride to another day that month. These will be M pace rides, probably averaging in the 13 MPH range for the entire trip, but B riders and a B ride leader are welcome and encouraged to set their own pace (call me if you want to lead these at a B pace). I see this ride series including rides like a ride to Alum Rock Park with some flat miles around Fremont thrown in to get our legs going and our butts used to being in the saddle for the time it takes to complete 100K; the "Tight Loop Around the Bay" ride (plus some flat around Fremont miles); a Grant Ranch ride; the Primavera 100K (our workers' ride), segueing into the Reverse Primavera 100K and a Cinderella and a Niles to Carroll/Flynn ride; and then on to Kings Mountain, Mines Road, Mountain Charlie, and Mt. Hamilton, capping-off the year with a lung-busting 6600' of climbing on 60 Ohlone Hill repeats (just kidding!). I'll try to coordinate the January, February, March and April rides with the Progressive Ride Series (i.e., we'll ride with that group for most of the ride, tacking on the necessary mileage at the beginning or the end of the ride to reach 100K). After the Primavera, I'm planning to make these on the second Saturday of each month, with the rain or threat of rain date on the next available weekend day (Sunday, the following Saturday, the following Sunday, and so on). This should ensure that we have an opportunity to decompress on the following day's "Get To Know Us Ride". Depending on who turns up, we can have more than one snack break, but we will always have plenty of regroups to ensure that we ride together. These will not be fast rides, so I'll try to start each ride no later than 8:00am in the dark season and possibly 7:30am in the light season to ensure that we are home by mid-afternoon. And finally, with maybe one or two exceptions, all of the rides will begin at one of our regular start locations in Fremont. This is a work in progress so, although it's my idea and I will do all the prep work, it's a Club ride and I want to make it enjoyable for everyone, from the hammerheads to first time 100K riders. To that end, please tell me your ideas for the series or how best to stage the rides (I can be reached at gmnorthrup@hotmail.com or at (510) 796-8832). And, as usual, if there isn't enough interest in the series, it will definitely fade away. A 100K ride is a challenge, but if you can do our monthly Calaveras ride you'll be able to do these rides! And just think--you'll be on my mailing list when I up the ante to a "Century a Month" series in 2007. Mike Northrup BTW, there are only 3 non-negotiable guidelines for these rides: 1) if you dawdle at the breaks, plan on catching us at the next regroup point; 2) if you whine, you buy me and the people who heard you whine the refreshing coffee beverage of our choice; and 3) if you tell bad jokes and the ride leader overhears it, well...there's no need for sanctions by the group as we all already know there's a special place in hell reserved for you and your kind. Mike Cinderella Training Series 2006 – Bike Inspection
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