Yesterday was the last day to ride hard before the Pozo La Panza Pozo race coming up in two days. I drove to my buddy Karl's place and we rode from there with his friend Ben, a seasoned rider and racer. Ben has just returned from more than a year of travel so I'd never riden with him before, but Karl's stories about him prepared me. Perfect riding conditions 75 and a light tail wind up the grade. I already knew that my legs were ready to go - I had that deep on the bone feeling all morning that says all systems go. The climb up the grade felt easy spinning a moderate gear sitting the whole time. Ben turned out to be a motor on the flat and it was all we could do to hold his wheel. It's almost always good to ride with someone new as their particular style will push you to do things you're not in the habit of doing. Ben really likes attacking at the bottom of hills and rollers to maintain momentum, something I used to do myself when I was younger. That was fun. He's also a very fast descender so holding his wheel on the downhills was a challenge. All in all a really fun ride marred only by Heidi flipping out 'cause she thought I was going to be back an hour or so earlier than I was. That anxiety fueled anger led to any number of subsidiary flip outs through the evening till it all finally calmed down around bedtime - slept like the dead.