http://omnitech.net/xaminmo/2014/06/17/2014-06-17-ladies-ride/ Sharon invited Karl, Mark and I to join the Ladies' ride tonight. I wasn't sure why at first. Then, the starting group was only 4 ladies and 3 guys, vs 10 last week. I thought maybe it was to fill the ranks. However, it was a pretty hard push. 15mph is not my peak effort, but more than I hoped for a recovery ride. Mark and Amanda bailed at the stop (Lewisville Theatre / art museum). I think maybe she invited us as much for personal competition/drive as anything else. Anyway, the music was mediocre, but entertaining anyway. I had a couple snow cones, a footlong, water, diet coke, and 1.5 bottles of Cytomax Orange. Some gabbing about bike-tech, phone tech, and SharonMPH (in retrospect, it's 15% higher than statute MPH). Amanda's tickled by a lot of my normal, dorky comments, so that makes me happy. (One less groan!) It was funny seeing Kathy, Carol, Sharon and Amanda all doing the WOOT WOOT raver girl sound during one of the songs. I enjoyed it, but I think the inherent competition (ie have to keep up!) of us guys on the ride defeats the purpose of a ladies' recovery ride. If we ride faster and keep up, then Sharon rides even faster. We have more testosterone, so we build muscle faster, etc. Having one lady bail and 2 falling off the back when there's Sharon and 2 guys up front probably isn't friendly/fun for the non-competitive riders. Inviting us along implies to me that maybe she's getting restless with the ladies' ride. She's always competing against herself, and pushing to ride faster. She's got a lot of miles already in her legs, so her ramp-up is equal to someone 20 years younger. I worry that she'll either drive off the beginner ladies, or bail on the concept of a ladies-only ride within a couple months. HH100 is coming up, you know. This is just my speculation. I read a lot into things, and despite my portrayal, I really do NOT know everything.