General Jackassery

Today I got on my bike and hit the road with a group of guys from the IM branch (same guys I started riding with last summer) it’s the third time I’ve ridden my bike this week. I’ve also played hockey and run twice for a total of about 2 miles. I’ve started running while the girls are practicing in the mornings becuase I truly believe there is NOTHING on this planet that will make your heart and lungs stronger any faster than running. Anyway, I’ve started pushing pretty hard again to get ready for the ride that I talked about in my last post. So William and I were flying, by the time we hit the neighborhood that we usually ride through we were already at an average speed of over 18 mph. (Normally we would just be approaching 16 mph at that point.) But, alas we had to slow down and wait on Mabry because he just isn’t strong enough to ride at that speed and he refuses to push himself.

There’s the difference: I’m not really strong enough to ride at that speed either, but I’m not going to just let someone ride away from me. Anyway, William and I ended up turning around and waiting on Mabry several times. We added about a mile and half to the distance that we would have ridden because we would turn back and pick Mabry back up. Finally when we were about 4 miles out, we dropped Mabry and William and I were both just too tired to go back and get him. (Funny you drop someone and you’re the one that’s too tired to go back and get him.) Anyway, I guess riding into a 15 mph headwind for 8 to 10 miles will wear you down, especially when you’ve been climbing (we decided to ride the rolling course). By the time all was said and done William and I rode about 21 miles at an average of 17 mph. We should have been closer to about 18 mph but we lost a lot of speed turning around to pick up Mabry.

When we all got back and in the locker room, Mabry said, “You guys are already at speeds that we were riding last summer, I can’t hang with you and I’ll never be able to catch you because I just can’t get enough time on the bike.” That made me feel pretty good. I’ve been away from riding seriously for about 3 months now and within two weeks of riding again I’m already back close to where I was. Today for the first time in a long time I cruised up the little incline on Plummer Rd. at over 20 mph. It’s not a big hill but I had been slowing down to about 13-15 going up it. So I’m starting to get my power back and my endurance is coming back too. Unfortunately the majority of the climbing that I’ll do on the Cheaha Challenge will be in a 25 mile segment. There is a 3.8 mile climb that is an average grade of 8%, that’s after you’ve already ridden 40+ miles and then you get to turn around and go back.

So to make a long story short, I was glad to hear Mabry concede that I’m WAY better than he is right now and he’ll probably never catch me. However, I was saddened by the realization that I can’t use him to help me get stronger. See William and I are the competitive sorts, he know’s that I’m not going to let him ride away from me, and if I do, he know’s that I’ll never let him get too far out that I can’t real him back in when I want to. (Today I let him get out about 150 meters, closed the gap and blew by him within a mile of the finish. ) So the two of us kind of feed off each other, if one of us is feeling a little froggy, the other is going to sit on his wheel and make him work for it. Unfortunately I can’t even Mabry to sit on my wheel. I was telling William today, “You know, I can understand if you can’t stay with me on the hills, but anybody on just about any type of bike should be able to tuck in my slipstream and ride nearly effortlessly at any speed I’m going.” William agreed, although he has said that when I get in a rythm on the flats, I’m very hard to pass. He said that last summer after I pulled him all the way down Jordan LN at over 25 Mph into a 15 mph head wind. He was feeling froggy and decided that he was going to try to pass me and take off. When he broke out of my draft the wind slapped in the face and he literally couldn’t pull hard enough to get around me.

Oh well, I just thought that last little bit was a funny story, I’m really not trying to pat myself on the back. Although it is good to build yourself up a little bit every now and again. Put me next to Rodney and the 50 year old man would smoke me and never look back!

It’s going to be an interesting summer, my goal is to finish the Cheaha Challenge, survive Rodney’s trip to the mountains and Qualify for RAAM (stands for the Race Across America)