Today was a warm day, but the usual breeze kept things from boiling over on the ride. My legs felt heavy when I got out the door. I started real modest to the top of the descent. I don't remember the time. According to the metrics, it was around 10:00 minutes. I soft-pedalled to the bottom of keene. No big effort there. When I got to the bottom, there was another cyclist (Bob). A guy who Roger and I met many months ago. He was about 30 second ahead of me and on the way up when I passed him. I caught up to him. He looked like he was taking a breather on this ride. When I caught up to him, he kept pace with me. So, it became apparent that he was going to keep up with me for the rest of the ascent. In actuallity (sp?), I was doing my best to keep up with him! Ailments, I had a sore knee in the first 10 minutes of the ride, that lasted, maybe one minute. A slight soreness in my back which went away just as quick. Other than that, I was just doing my best to keep up with him. I was red-lining it on a few occassions. It was a high tempo ride for me. Bob didn't seem to be in any spot of bother. He mentioned that he did the discrict championships in Bakersfield over the weekend. That made me feel a little better, knowing that I kept up with someone who was competitve. I had to back off a few times to keep from blowing up. I was glad I was able to keep up with him to the very top. Gear, no problems. Concentration, was different, because I was chatting with him and gasping for air at the same time. I was tunneling most of the ascent as I was near my limit. Balance felt good.