and all together now, can we say... WIND?
It could not have been a more beautiful day except for the gale force winds that were blowing us all over the road today. Met at the CVS, usual crowd minus Scott and Chad, around 1:00. Left out Ray Thorington and decided on doing a little shorter loop today. Went out Old Pike and took a right at Hayneville, right at 82 and then back around on Pike Road. I think we ended up with around 33+/- miles. But those miles we worked for like dogs!
Mental note to myself: Don't eat a foot long Publix Boars Head Ultimate Sub 30 minutes before riding. I now know what it feels like to be 8 months pregnant and ride a bike. I felt like I was carrying around a baby. I think I was about to give birth to it at mile 27.
Anyway, I think I overheard Colin say that we were averaging 21.9 when we hit Hayneville Rd. almost 16 miles into the ride. No wonder my legs were screaming. I think we were riding in some type of cismic vacuum because the wind was coming from all directions. It was playing a mean, sick game and we were its pawn. Not to mention, my MP3 player was stuck on repeat with Metallica's Battery blasting through the ear buds. If I slowed down to fix it, I knew I would be dropped and never catch back on. So I listened to it, over and over and over and over for 45 straight minutes. My head felt like somebody was inside trying to hammer their way out of my skull. I thought I was going to go insane. Needless to say, I fixed my MP3 player when I got to hayneville Rd.
Big props go out to the guys up front, you know who you were. Pulling like nobody's business. I was just trying to hang on back there!
I knew when we hit Pike Rd. off of 82, it was going to get bad. And it did. Richard, Ken, Colin were pushing it hard and ended up dropping us. I was waiting for this though cause Richard was just itching to put the hammer down. He and his new 5200 were like a bullet. Next time I am going to bring him a Boars Head Ultimate to eat before the ride. That will slow him down!!!
But this left Alan, Mark and myself. Alan worked like a mule up front pulling like a champ. Mark did a good job as well and they swapped back and forth. Where was I you might ask... trying to keep my heart rate under heart attack level. I think next week I am going to stick a couple of those paddles you see them use on ER in my jersey pocket just in case! We were off the lead group by about 100 yards most of the time. I could tell Alan wanted to real them back in but it was tough. I was hanging on the back trying to save any energy I could find. We had gotten about 75 yards back and a good downhill was coming up. I gave it all I had to try and bridge the gap. I knew I had to do it before the downhill. Did I succeed, not even remotely close. I think I actually tasted my left lung. What a waste of energy. Not exactly sure what I was thinking but I failed miserably. I hit the wall head first and it hurt. Alan and Mark passed me again and I jumped back on the train.
We hit Ray Thorington a few miles down the road and I was feeling a lot better. I put in another pull and tried my best to reach the lead group because it looked like they were slowing down a little. But I was spent after about a mile and a half at 21 mph. We gained some ground but it wasn't enough.
Tough ride but enjoyed it fellas! Man do I love coming home all hurting and sore from a good ride. Makes you feel alive. Can't wait for next week!
