I had a nice time on the Huffy today. It was a beautiful day with moderate wind speed and temperatures. I rode over to the 13-odd mile circuit at a local state-park and went around it in the 52-19 eighth gear. I stopped about the 2/3rd point to take off this heavy plaid shirt I had on and stuff it in my messenger bag, took a leak behind some bushes, downed a bottle of water and then got back on the road at the normal pace. At the end of the circuit I paused and thought about going around again and noticed traffic was getting a bit heavier. I saw another cyclist start off around the circuit and decided to follow. There were several automobiles I was riding with and the exhaust smell was worrying, but I passed a few cars and caught up with the other cyclist ahead. They looked good with strong legs, on a nice Specialized with what might be called Tri-bars, a flashing light and some computer equipment on it. I got beside them and said hello and asked them if they raced bicycles, because they surely looked the part, and they said they like doing triathalons, but had three kids and a teaching job and that made it tough to train, and they said it was only their second time out on a bike this year, they said the bicycle was their weak part of a triathalon, which I thought was odd, because running and swimming seems far harder than riding a bike to me. I asked how fast we were going and they said a bit under 19mph. I thought they must just be warming up, and also since they were almost 20 years my junior I was thinking I was going to get dropped at some point in the near future. When they picked up the pace a bit I was making guesses about the speed, calling out to them 19, 20. 21 mph and they said I was spot on with my guesses. I found that as long as I kept my head down and on the drops I kept up with no problem, I was going a bit slower even than on the last circuit, this rider had lots of muscles but not the aerobic ability to keep any higher speed average. I noticed they were pedaling a bit slower than I was, so I suggested they try a gear that would let them spin faster and that they might go faster, and they did, and said that it was easier to hold the speed, but they did not go any faster. When we came to a little rise I told them to speed up when approaching a rise instead of letting it slow you down, but it seemed hard for them. Another larger rise came up that included a bridge crossing over water and I called it out in advance and said to "punch it", which I did and I went on ahead as fast as I could go, up the rise past some other traffic, and down the other side I had to coast a bit as the bike was going faster than the gear I was in would let me comfortably spin, I never changed gears around the circuit but always stayed in the same 52/19 gear. When I looked back to see the other rider they had dropped back quite a ways, so I sat up and took it easy for a while so they could catch up, which they eventually did after a mile or so and they passed and went ahead and I sped up again to keep the pace. Now I had been going fast for about twenty miles and was probably getting tired, but as long as I kept down and on the drops I could still go fine. Where we had two lanes I pulled out and just road abreast, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind depending on traffic. I was tired a bit now and was working to keep up with the Specialized rider but did it, we got to the end of the circuit again and they said their average speed was 18.8mph according to their computer. I figured on my first lap around I had surely done a bit faster. I felt good going up a very steep long hill away from the park back to the city traffic and on to home. It had been a fast ride of about 34 miles. Hopefully if I keep up this type of riding in time I will be able to start going around the circuit on a good day in ninth gear sometime this summer, which I think is a 52/17.