Pushing Hard
A couple times every month some of the guys on GeoLadders have a Bible study ride. I've been going to these rides for a while now and last night (11/30/06) we had planned to do Beek's and then have dinner after. This ride was important for me because I wanted to cement a monthly medal and I needed every point I could get.
Anyways the list of guys that were coming came to: Doug, Chris, Matt, Andrew, Jerry and me. I was expecting bitter cold and I was not disappointed. When we got to the parking area it was cold, but not bad, but by the time we finished it was in the 30's.
Doug, Andrew, Matt and I all parked at the same spot and we waited until 6PM for Chris and Jerry to arrive. Since we had waited 30 minutes we figured that was enough and left without them. It was funny because we rode down maybe 100 yards on Blackstar before seeing their cars on the side of the road. Oops.
To the ride ...
Knowing that Chris and Jerry got a head start caused Doug to say "We should catch them." Now this is a funny sentence. If you were to start me and Jerry at the same spot and say "GO!", Jerry would drop me in a second. I'm nowhere near as fast as Jerry. Same with Chris. Both guys are head and shoulders above where I'm at when it comes to climbing. Even funnier is that Doug is just plain beyond my ability. So the idea that I could "catch" Jerry and Chris with Doug was just plain stupid in my mind. Despite all that, I decided to give it a shot. Ha.
Doug was setting the pace and I figured that if we couldn't catch them, I'd at least like to shoot for under 1 hour gate to gate. My prior record was 1:10 gate to gate and I almost puked when I did that.
The first 2-3 miles I noticed my heart rate was flirting with disaster. I was hovering between high 170's and low 180's. I was also in a high gear because I was trying to keep up with Doug.
Eventually he got tired of hanging back with me and took off. I was thankful in a sense because I knew I couldn't maintain the pace for the entire ride up (8 miles).
Long story short, we did end up catching Jerry and Chris. Not really sure how that happened, but we did it. In fact Matt caught Doug and I and Andrew wasn't far behind. I remember during one short climb feeling the lactic acid gushing inside my legs. At least that's what I thought it was. Interesting feeling.
I ended up slowly the pace a bit to hang and talk with Chris, but I didn't lose all that much time by hanging with him. I had been pushing hard and I didn't want to blow up before the big ride Saturday.
Final time from gate to gate was 1:03. Pretty good! I actually felt ok at the top too. Didn't need to puke and my legs had recovered from pushing really hard earlier in the ride.
On the way back I was a little nervous because I had forgotten the mount for my light and I had zip-tied it to the handlebars. It wasn't on super tight, but it was perfect for the descent.
I ended up getting a flat on my rear wheel about a mile from the finish. That sucked. I could feel the bike fish tail a bit and sure enough it was done. Not just flat, but totally gone. I hope my rim didn't get banged up too.
Overall it was a good ride. That's the hardest I've pushed on a ride in a long time. I was shocked to see that I could push so hard for so long without falling apart. Might have to start doing that more often.
Anyways the list of guys that were coming came to: Doug, Chris, Matt, Andrew, Jerry and me. I was expecting bitter cold and I was not disappointed. When we got to the parking area it was cold, but not bad, but by the time we finished it was in the 30's.
Doug, Andrew, Matt and I all parked at the same spot and we waited until 6PM for Chris and Jerry to arrive. Since we had waited 30 minutes we figured that was enough and left without them. It was funny because we rode down maybe 100 yards on Blackstar before seeing their cars on the side of the road. Oops.
To the ride ...
Knowing that Chris and Jerry got a head start caused Doug to say "We should catch them." Now this is a funny sentence. If you were to start me and Jerry at the same spot and say "GO!", Jerry would drop me in a second. I'm nowhere near as fast as Jerry. Same with Chris. Both guys are head and shoulders above where I'm at when it comes to climbing. Even funnier is that Doug is just plain beyond my ability. So the idea that I could "catch" Jerry and Chris with Doug was just plain stupid in my mind. Despite all that, I decided to give it a shot. Ha.
Doug was setting the pace and I figured that if we couldn't catch them, I'd at least like to shoot for under 1 hour gate to gate. My prior record was 1:10 gate to gate and I almost puked when I did that.
The first 2-3 miles I noticed my heart rate was flirting with disaster. I was hovering between high 170's and low 180's. I was also in a high gear because I was trying to keep up with Doug.
Eventually he got tired of hanging back with me and took off. I was thankful in a sense because I knew I couldn't maintain the pace for the entire ride up (8 miles).
Long story short, we did end up catching Jerry and Chris. Not really sure how that happened, but we did it. In fact Matt caught Doug and I and Andrew wasn't far behind. I remember during one short climb feeling the lactic acid gushing inside my legs. At least that's what I thought it was. Interesting feeling.
I ended up slowly the pace a bit to hang and talk with Chris, but I didn't lose all that much time by hanging with him. I had been pushing hard and I didn't want to blow up before the big ride Saturday.
Final time from gate to gate was 1:03. Pretty good! I actually felt ok at the top too. Didn't need to puke and my legs had recovered from pushing really hard earlier in the ride.
On the way back I was a little nervous because I had forgotten the mount for my light and I had zip-tied it to the handlebars. It wasn't on super tight, but it was perfect for the descent.
I ended up getting a flat on my rear wheel about a mile from the finish. That sucked. I could feel the bike fish tail a bit and sure enough it was done. Not just flat, but totally gone. I hope my rim didn't get banged up too.
Overall it was a good ride. That's the hardest I've pushed on a ride in a long time. I was shocked to see that I could push so hard for so long without falling apart. Might have to start doing that more often.
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