White to Salacoa Valley

WKO+ Performance Manager

(click to enlarge all images)

Today we had the opportunity to ride with the NARC BrewCrew and it was Nancy who was able to select the route because it was her birthday ride. I was excited all week because the weather was changing from frigid temperatures during the week to a nice weather report for the weekend. Exciting news for any cyclists. The start was a bit cold, but after a few minutes my core temperature went up and all was fine. Plus I was not burdened with a lot of extra layers of clothing or jackets.

As you can see on the Performance Manager I played it safe last week and reduced my indoor training significantly because I felt/feel like I have just a slight touch of a respiratory thing and I didn't want to dig myself a deep hole with training and overstress my immune system. That being the case I felt pretty fresh today unlike the past several weeks. I had to enjoy today because it is back to the indoor training grind next week. The ride from the brewery out to Salacoa Valley is not really my type of terrain because I often struggle with climbing. As you can see on the profile there was some climbing, but I kept up pretty good. After the store stop the terrain suited me better. Downhill or flat....sweet. After the store stop the group was pedaling a mild pace and my engine was a bit anxious. I kept running up on the cyclist in front of me, but I was boxed in and we were bunched up tight. I finally found an opening right up the middle and took the opportunity to break away and just set a comfortable pace. Alan Pilling came up to join in and after a while Peter showed up. We stopped at an intersection, but Alan and Peter waited. I wanted to keep the momentum going so I took off and went back into what I would call my L3 zone type of pace. Not too hard, but just steady and solid. I looked back and no one was in sight. I thought for sure with the slight headwinds that they would catch me since they could pace line (swap fresh riders to pull the group). I kept going and ended the ride with a bit more solid effort compared to past weeks. After the ride several of them said something about paybacks, but I can assure you that if I get back into my indoor training groove this week I will be worn out for the next group ride and payback will be easy for them to accomplish.