No, I'm not pissed off about anything. As I was getting ready to write this post, 'Bad Habit' by The Offspring came through my jukebox. It's off their album Smash. If you don't have it, get it. The line above is from the bridge of the song.
Anyways, I went to the BOB tuesday night road ride last night. I was hoping for a decent turnout, but there were only four others in the parking lot. An older cat4 guy (but very fit), A mid 50's non-racer, a current 50+ racer, and way-fast whitey. The Indomitable Duane was unable to ride since he's undergoing therapy for his hip, had some sort of anti-inflammatory injection, and was told not to exercise for a couple days. Once we started rolling we picked up two others, a criterium-pack-finisher cat 3 and a hard core CXr who does well in the fall.
I was in the mood to ride. I'm not feeling 100% right now, I have some sort of respiratory illness my daughter undoubtedly brought home from school. I thought I should bag tuesday and rest for BkR, but then I thought, 'I'll go and do some hard work tonight. If I do OK I'll be ok to ride BkR. If I _don't_ ride, I may get to BkR and die ten miles in'.
This ride has a very long 'warm-up' lead in of about 7 miles. Once we hit the 'go' point, I started riding. Not attacking, but putting a decent pressured pace on. I was keeping a good cadence in my 53x16. I ended up with about a 100 yard gap, until the rest of the guys decided to start riding. It's mostly gradual downhill for a while, so I just kept the pace about 25. Eventually they caught me, and we started a loose paceline. Way fast whitey and I were taking longer pulls, but the cat 3 crit-pack-racer was contributing. Unfortunately, the pace I was setting was more than just a bit faster than the others, and whitey was the only guy that kept my pace when I pulled off. I started to notice that they weren't able to hold the pace anytime the road went up, even over the little stuff. If I was at the front and simply kept the pace, I would develop an immediate gap. This happened several times, and I would ride my 16 at a good cadence until they bridged up. There is a half-way sprint entering exeter. I led up over the last rise with whitey on my wheel. He came by pushing a 14 at a good cadence, and fast enough that I had to work to get back in his draft. He kept that speed all the way to the sprint line. I probably could have come around him if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. I was doing the work I wanted to do, and he was going pretty quick for that last 1000 yards. Later he said he was hovering between 29 and 30.
The ride slows down through exeter for safety/traffic, and to allow slower riders to catch on. We picked up the pace again on the other side of exeter, and noticed that we had lost two riders. They both know the area well - so no problem.
We started working again, with me, whitey, and cat 3 crit doing most of the work. Then we hit a long shallow rise. It's one of those rises that's just steep enough to make you drop a gear to keep your cadence, and long enough so that if you try to keep your speed it pushes you into the red. I was pulling, had dropped into my 17, and next I knew I had a gap again. I let it coast a bit and two of them caught on, whitey and the Cx guy. We hit the next little climb and I kept the speed up. By the time I hit the flat on the other side I had a huge gap, maybe 30 seconds. There is a sprint line at the top of a hill about a mile from there, so I kept the pressure on, grinding out my 16. I made it to the top of the sprint line still with 30 seconds, but developed an intense wind cramp in the top right abdominal muscle. After the regroup, I had to sit on and let the cramp recover.
Over the next two hills, I would ride away from the group, then they would organize and catch me, then slow down and I would go again. The third time, I kept the pressure on. They were gaining on me, but then we hit the last steep 'power hill', and I looked back to see only one guy about 15 seconds back. From there it's about 1 1/2 miles to the 'finish'. I looked back a couple times, and it definitely looked like he was gaining, but coming into the finishing stretch I popped it down a couple of cogs and got out of the saddle. I think he still finished about 15 seconds back.
That's probably the best ride I've had at a tuesday night fight in years. I was able to maintain a good cadence in a decent gear for long periods of time. Based on the fact I was pushing my 16 on the flats and 17 on the hills I would say I'm as fit as I've ever been at this point in the year, so it isn't simply a case of the other riders being less fit. At no point did I ever actually attack, I just kept the pressure on, and if someone could stay on my wheel, great. If not, I would just keep riding.
so the good news - I'm fit, I think fit enough to not get embarrassed at BkR,
bad news - I'm sick, I have a sore throat, congested head, feeling slightly feverish.
good news - I'm down to a solid 146 on the morning weigh-in, and was at 144 last night after the ride.
bad news - a good pound of that weight loss came out of me in the form of phlegm from my throat and nose on the ride.
good news - the bike worked flawlessly, and I'm convinced it helped my riding last night
bad news - I have to get my ass in the basement and remount my sprinter 250's, the glue is two years old.
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