Martini says, "Right!"

Today I was supposed to be riding the 136.3 mile Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride. Due to a variety of reasons (tired from travel, haven't spent a weekend home in a long time, no friends who would ride with me - poor me!) I bailed on the ride. I think it must have been the right decision because I didn't have that usual feeling of "I'm a lazy slacker" or the all day craving to be out there on the course. And it was an absolutely perfect day for it - bright blue sky, 75 degrees, no humidity and little wind. 100% glorious riding weather. ~sigh... Ok, perhaps there is a tidbit of me disappointed that I didn't do it. Next year.

So not to be a total loser, I did get S and PFFC to commit to doing a 50 miler (was going to be a 70 miler but PFFC had to head north for her nephew's graduation). It became my action item to plan the route mostly because if I left it up to them, we'd be doing the same ol' loop we always do. Much to their credit, they didn't whine about having to do something new. The route that I chose came from the Charles River Wheelmen site. Bless their cycling-trained hearts, these guys and girls go out there, scout new routes, mark them, post cue sheets on their site, etc. Wonderful cycling resource here in the metro Boston area. Usually, we head northwest of Boston. This time, I chose to head a little more south - almost directly west of the city to Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, Concord, Lincoln, etc. While I thought it was pretty, S and PFFC weren't too impressed (geez guys, branch out already!). I have to admit our favorite part about the ride, though, were the route markers. The cue sheets said they looked like coat hangers without the hook. To us (and our derelict minds) they looked more like upside-down martini glasses. And so this created 50 miles of someone shouting when they saw a marker indicating a turn, "Martini says Right!" or "Martini says Left!" And now I really can't get that out of my head - I'm even saying it while driving.

So it ended up being a fun ride. Stopped at Whole Foods along the route for some ice coffee. More coffee and half a hekla at Peets as a reward. There's definitely something to be said for keeping it fun. A ride with goals simply set to be only caffeine, pastry, ice cream and enjoying a beautiful day outside is a super refreshing break from all the structured training and racing. Martini says, "Drink!" ;-)