"Nice Cadence"

Truth be told, I'm still afraid of my road bike.
It's light, has skinny tires, and requires me to be near the general vicinity of motor vehicles and if you haven't driven through Missouri ... just trust me, Missouri drivers can be scary!! So instead of training on my road bike this weekend like a good triathlete would do, I took my old trusty Kona mountain bike on the trail. I had a great ride - which why wouldn't it be great? The trail is 10 feet wide and flat given that it's an old railroad grade and requires the technical abilities of a 3 year old with training wheels. It was, however, my longest ride to date which is an accomplishment.

I hit the local MKT trail which then connects to the KATY trail and I cycled to the town of Rocheport and back. It was a fabulous day to be outdoors and there were lots of people on the trail to keep me company including several troops of Boy Scouts that I was able to pass ... and sadly that's what it takes to make me feel fast. I was surprised by how friendly everyone was, when I'd call out to a walker that I was passing (and I don't yell because when I'm running and someone yells loudly "ON YOUR LEFT!" it scares the bejesus out of me every time) they'd say "Thanks" or "Have a great ride." When I got to Rocheport, I got a quick bite at the Trailside Cafe and I visited with the Boy Scout leaders ... they were doing 20 and 40 mile rides and were from the Kansas City area ... and met a guy three weeks into a solo bike tour across the states.

To make a long story short, on my way bike a "real" biker was passing me and called out encouragingly, "Nice cadence, keep it up!" I'm not really sure exactly what he meant by that ... I mean it sounded like a compliment. But the rest of my ride back I was obsessed with my cadence, thinking to myself, you're slow but DAMN you have a great cadence!! Though I don't have a cyclometer on that bike, I do know that I tend to cycle with a high cadence (>100) I don't know if that's wise or stupid or if it makes me slower, it's just the way I ride. But in either case, some random dude made me feel like maybe I am a real cycler!!