Per the meteorologist, we had about 5 hours to get a ride in today before the "historic" storm hit us at noon. Well, it is 4:07 pm as I write this and the strom just hit. The good thing is we missed it. It's just these weather guys get so wound up when they see a storm system approaching. It is practically the end of the world and we are all going to die! Kind of like when somebody calls another person a nappy ol' hoe, Jesse, Al and all their cohorts jump on it like white on rice!
I decided to go ahead and get a ride report up this afternoon cause, well, it's raining. And besides picking my nose, there is not a whole lot else to be doing. Not to mention my legs feel like jello and the thought of standing does not even remotely sound like a good idea. The kids are at the grandparents and the house is silent. What a miraculous thing silence can be when you have a 16 month old little girl and a 4 1/2 year old little boy. This is nice, real nice.
So anyway... we (Alan, Ken, james, Colin, Chad and myself) met up at the CVS a little before 7am so that we could hit the road at 7am and not get caught in this end of the world storm system that is going to suck every life form off the planet and spill them into outer space. I took the lead when we hit Pike Rd. and I decided it was time to open it up a little and see if anybody wanted to play. Plus I wanted to do some intervals early in the ride to get my heart rate up and see if it would go ba ck down. I topped my hill at the Pike Rd library at 20 mph which I was happy with. Heart rate not too bad and I wan't out of breath. Good sign for a good ride ahead. I was feeling good (maybe even a little frisky) and I know I need to start pushing myself harder so that I can keep up with the likes of Chad, Ken and Colin. We took a left on Old Pike and I continued to lead the group for a couple of more miles till we hit our first real climb. Hung with the guys but Chad decided it was his time to go and he took off like scalded ape!!!! I chased and the fun began! It was the first of many sprints of the day. If I remember correctly, Colin came around me and was gone. Ken was the next one and I got on his wheel and we pushed it over the next climb and caught back up with Colin at the second climb. From here on to Hayneville Rd., we pushed almost a 20 mph avg for the first 15 miles. Everybody was riding well and must have been feeling pretty good.
Ken and James had to head back so they took a right while we headed straight to 82. We hit 82 and continued straight again, a first for me. I was warned of some rougher roads ahead. Might want to call the Dept of Transportation cause this was more like riding on loose rocks with small craters in the road from possibly a meteor shower that happened long ago. It was about 6-7 miles of ass pounding, rattle your fillings out, Paris Roubaix style riding that would gain the respect of any Pro rider out there should they dare ride it. Seeing that Versus (the olf OLN Network) was playing the 2007 Paris Roubaix on Sunday, this was only fitting that we put ourselves through this torture out of respect. By the time we looped back around to Hwy. 82, Alan cassete was so loose, it sounded like his LightSpeed was falling apart. But we all know that was not the case, it was just the cassette.
We stopped at 82 and let Alan look over his bike. Chad, the rolling Subway shop, was offering up sandwiches which he had hidden in his jersey pockets. Honey-peanut butter on dinner loaf bread, a heavenly combination after over 40 miles in the saddle. I could have sat there all day but the sky was getting darker and we knew we had to get going. After Alan confirmed his cassette was the problem and nothing more serious, we hit the road to back-track to Hwy. 37 to head back.
With Alan having a loose cassette, we turned the dial down on our speed. Which was more than fine by me since we pushed it pretty hard for the first half of the ride. But going slow (18 mph avg) makes Chad anxious. So to get his heart rate up, he thought it would be "fun" to put in some interval training. This is not what I wanted to do after 40+ miles (actual;ly I never want to do intervals) but he was taunting me. Pulling ahead and looking back trying to get me to go. After a couple of times, it was game on!!!
He looked back, I ignored him and right when his head started to turn back around, I went!!! I blew past him as fast as I could and that is when I got a chance to really see Chad explode. It only took a few seconds and he blew right past me. I was going about 31 mph and he went by me at 36. That is a HUGE difference in a matter of a couple of seconds! We did this 3 times and I was toast. He wanted to put one more in but I was not having anything to do with it. It was somebody's else's turn. So Colin and Alan decided to try and catch him off guard. I saw what they were planning on doing and got out of the way.
They waited for him to relax and they both attacked. It took him a second to see what was going on and he reacted. They had him for about a half a second before he and that Cervelo blew past them like a missile!!! Man, Chad is fast. That ended the sprintervals for the day because I think we were all beat. But it was one of those rides where you could tell everyone was happy to be out there and having fun.
We hit Old Pike Road and Chad took the lead. Alan, Colin and I swapped up pulling trying to reel him back in. I broke off the front trying to bridge the gap but there was no way I was catching Chad. I made a right on Pike Rd. with Chad about 100 yards in front, and Colin and Alan about 50 yards behind. Knowing I didn't have enough juice to catch Chad, my new goal was to reach Ray Thorington without Colin and Alan catching me. They had gotten in a groove and caught me a couple of miles down the road. They passed me and I hopped on but didn't last. I was done. I limped back to Ray Thorington and caught back up with them as they slowed down.
I got home and I was beat. I ended up with 59.3 miles with a 18.5 average speed. This ended up being a great ride and is just what the doctor ordered after being sick last weekend. Hopefully I can get a spin class in, maybe do the Tuesday Worlds, and get a time trial in this week. That's a lot for one week but I have a race on May 5th so it is time to buckle down.
