White-Adairsville 65 Miles

(click any image to enlarge)

Garmin Connect Ride Data (the average speed is not correct)

I am so excited after today's ride. I have been in a slump for a few months struggling to hold on to the gang and ride at their level, but the reward is even sweeter coming out of such a long slump that it is hard to put into written words.

After weeks of discouraging performances it is really pleasant to sit here and reflect about the day without seeming to gloat about the experience. I am not sitting here thinking about it in a malicious way as if I were to say, "I put a hurting on some of the group today." No, my day was a day of not getting dropped like I have been dropped for weeks now and being the last to come into the parking lot. Today felt good just to hang in the group and finish well. Only toward the end did my legs feel, on a few occasions, like they wanted to cramp. It was on the last phase of the ride coming back on Busch Drive where Peter and I were pacing. As I looked down at my speed and tucked in Peter's draft at 28 mph for a short bit my legs were finally feeling the effort of the day, but the legs did well all the way through on this training event. It seemed like we spent a good portion of the ride in the 20's, but even on climbs my legs felt like speeding up and I have not felt good on climbs this whole year. On the Boyd Mountain Road climb I did much better.

Early in the ride I thought I messed up, but it was a calculated risk that I thought would be fun. We were on a stretch of straight road and Rick Nielsen was up front with a small gap between him and the group. I was about in the middle of the pack and I just imagined that he was just primed and ready for someone to break loose and make a move so I took the opportunity. I pulled out into the other lane sprinted a few repetitions of the crank, sat down on the saddle and went by him at over 30 mph with just a glance over at Rick and a smirk just to incite his fire. It was a short lived effort on my part, but it did get Rick and others going and the pace from that point forward became intense at times. After the ride Rick told me that he was just thinking before I made the move that he was hoping someone would try to break away. It was really good fun, but I dropped back into the group and recovered for a while. Much to my surprise my legs were eager to just keep turning it up and I kept restraining them thinking how I have been dropped so much in past weeks and that I wanted to complete this ride with the group.

Going toward Kingston we were getting close to 40 miles of this pace on our legs and that is when I struggled a little. The group had broken apart and I found myself catching up to Tim Jones in that middle land between the two groups. I had dropped off the group when I was not paying enough attention and within a few seconds of their sprinting a hill I was off the back. Tim and I put on a good pace and thankfully the group in front of us was slowing down a little. That helped us get back into the draft of the group and recover. From that point forward my goal was just to hang on the best I could and finish with the gang. I could see Rick Nielsen way up in front of us and I thought the guys were going to try to chase him, but fortunately they kept a steady but quick pace.

I don't how many guys there were today, but it was a good sized group with everyone being able to put out a good effort for most of the ride. I would like to think that I had a break through and that I am out of the slump, but I am cautious and will just appreciate finally having one good day in comparison to past weeks. Good consistent training is the remedy and I am starting to log more training hours so maybe I am coming back a little. Either way I am just very grateful for this particular good day. Grateful to have such a great group of guys and girls to ride with. A group of cyclists that are competitive, but do not have egos and are extremely great to share the road and the day.

One note to the readers of this blog. Even though I speak of being in a slump, I still am grateful to the Lord for blessing me with the physical ability to get out and be mobile. I am grateful on any day to be riding on rural country roads whether the sun is out or it is raining. I am a cycling addict and I am just grateful to be riding a bike even if I am slower on some days.