).So I'm biking home, my usual route. It's about 10 minutes on the road, 15 minutes on the trails and 5 min home after I leave the trails. On the 10 minutes of road part, there are two not-bad hills. At the top of the first one, another cyclist passed me. Which was okay, because he was a nice enough person to say "good evening". I hate when cyclists pass me and aren't even friendly enough to say hi.
So he passed me, but I caught up to him by the time we got to the top of the second hill. And then we get to the trails: the entrance is behind a hospital, so when we got to the parking lot, I went one way and he went another. Then about 100 metres into the trail, I notice a cyclist behind me. He didn't pass me right away, but stayed about 30 feet behind me. I realize that this is a real-life training opportunity. 
I will happily work harder when I'm "competing" with a cyclist than I would if I was just happily riding home. So I start cycling at pretty much the fastest I know I can maintain for more than a few minutes. About halfway there my legs are a little tired, but I know I'm keeping the cyclist at bay, so I keep it up. As we approach my exit from the trails, I signal, because I know he's right behind me. I move to the left side of the trail so I can get out of his way while I turn. The cyclist says just before he passes me, "You're really fit! Thanks you." I chuckled, and we both said goodnight as we passed. It was the same guy who had passed me on the hill. 
I'm really fit!?! Woohoo!!
I was tired, but I still managed to bike all the way up the Giant Hill on the way out of the trail--that a cyclist last week referred to it as the "killer hill". Yay for exercise NSVs!! Please share.
