Wet weather, wimping out; then hills & hills, May 17-19

Sorry to have been silent for so long (not that anybody is really reading this).
The Bloomin' Metric was cold, windy & raining, and I did not have enough clothing. Bruce & I drove to Norwalk, met Henry & a few staunch TnT-ers. Henry gave permission to bail, and we did, driving back home in the rain. It would have been a miserable ride, and I'm too old for intentional, voluntary misery. If Tahoe is rainy, however, I will ride & finish.
To make up for the wimp-out, I designed a 40 mile ride in the afternoon that took on a number of serious hills: Mansion Road in Wallingford, Bethany Mountain Road, Route 67 from Prospect to Woodbridge, Center Road to Forest Rd. & on out to Shelton via Rtes. 146 & 34 & Long Hill Road.
Tuesday (5/19) I did my first "Shelton Hill Ride" with John Ercolani & the few crazies who join him. Very nice people, and a 24 mile ride that involved 3500 feet of climbing, about equivalent to Tahoe, but in one-fourth the distance. We had one climb of about 21%, which is really steep: stand on the pedals hard and elevate the heart-rate to 160 bpm steep! Great training.