A Good Day With Team-B

David, Neal, Peter, Gary, Derek, Mike and Edgar

MotionBased Ride Data

This was not a day to boast about my performance. Today I felt like I was off and maybe it was due to fatigue from twice a day training through the week. Then there was the weather factor. All week it was questionable about a group ride on Saturday as rain was predicted. Several of us watched the reports on Weather.com. Friday evening and Saturday morning it was the craziest thing. Each time I would look at the web page for Cartersville it would be either 40% or 10% chance of precipitation. I started on Thursday to rally the team members for a 10 a.m. start. At 10 this morning it was raining, but again the web page stated it would be clearing toward noon. We had eight of our team show up and a few that could not attend because of the delayed start.

I was really anticipating this ride and probably would have gone in light rain because I really wanted to get in a 3+ hour ride today. It seems like on those days that I anticipate going more than usual, I end up with a day of struggling on the bike. Before the ride I felt good and I did some extra stretching to be ready, but as soon as we roll out of the parking lot my hamstrings feel like they have knots in them. The same with my right calf muscle and my quadriceps felt like they were going to cramp right out of the gate. My breathing was very labored and though I was not wearing a heart rate monitor I felt like I was about 20 beats over my maximum. Not a good feeling in the first 10 miles of a 50+ ride with guys that are more than capable of putting a hurtin' on me without even trying.

Actually, I was more concerned for Edgar before the start because for various reasons he has not been on a ride with us in a while, but I was real impressed with his performance as if he missed very little. Derek seemed strong considering that he is planning a knee surgery soon and the powerhouse of the day was Mike Quick. Of course I could talk about Peter and how he effortlessly just pulls away when he decides and at one time I had to remind him as he was pulling the group that he was a bit stronger than what we could hold at the time. I am wondering what kind of super secret training Neal Bowers has been doing. Every ride he seems to be right there in the mix and of course Gary is the sleeper waiting for to attack on the hills. Its not really an aggressive explosion going past us on the climbs, but a kind of a roll past us when we are breathing hard and a nice, "how ya feeling?" as he rolls on past us. He's a strong climber and overall a good cyclist on most terrain. David Marion is much like Gary and seems to be good on just about any terrain as well.

Because of my perceived feeling I stayed either mid or back of the pack in the first half of the ride. I kind of kept quiet and just hoped that if anything I could hold for the duration. I wasn't upset because I had such great training events all week and those days mean as much to me as these rides.

We had a late store stop in Adairsville for this ride. At that moment Derek told me that we only had about 15 miles left. For whatever reason I started feeling better 25 miles into this ride and just getting better every mile after. My legs were now getting loose and my breathing was calm as was my heart rate. The last 10 miles it was me, Mike, Peter, Gary and Neal that broke away and in that group there were some impromptu races that kind of unfolded, but in the end Mike and Peter had too much power for me to hang on. I like Mike's strategy drafting me on the nearly flat stretch going back in. I kept thinking they were going to attack and Mike's timing was perfect as he whipped around out of my draft. I held a good pace, but even if I had tried to sprint there was no way I was going to catch them. I'll be keeping this in the back of my mind for the next ride. :-)

For a day that looked like it might not happen it turned out pretty good. It was warm enough for me to take off the vest and there was no rain from start to finish. A great day out with my riding buddies. Sitting in the basement on a trainer in January? No way!! I will be out on the road with my friends.