separated

Went riding with my periodic riding partner Gruesome Groff yesterday afternoon. We actually lost one another for the first time in a very long while, and more thoroughly than we have in years.

It wasn't my longest ride of the year (11.5 trip; 56:29 time; 22.4 mph max; 12.2 avg), although it may have been his. He rides a Moab mountain bike, so the fifteen-plus-mile rides are a real challenge for him in comparison with the relative ease with which I scoot around on my hybrid.

It's not that he's not in good shape. We're just differently equipped and train differently.

I was holding back for pretty much the entire ride, and he was blowing full steam trying to keep up while taking several breaks. At one point, he took a break I didn't expect, and I found myself ahead of him in some traffic. I took a right turn to get out of the way of a speeding motorcycle, and that's the last GG and I saw of each other.

Each made efforts to wait at what seemed like logical enough resting spots, but logical thought based on incomplete information doesn't always work out (as I know quite well from poker).

He finally decided to boogie back to his place to get to his cell phone and call me, while I opted to backtrack a few miles and examine a likely route to make sure he wasn't lying about in a ditch.

We both lived to ride another day, but we're looking into some options for staying in radio contact during rides.