Today was an absolutely gorgeous day to ride 25 miles! Before we started out, we were told that we would break up into two groups: The Less Experienced and the More Experienced. After hearing what the More Experienced group was going to do, I wanted to jump in with them-and said so, but put in a disclaimer stating that looking at the rest of them, I’d be the slowest one. Our assistant coach (Daniel) said, “Come on with us!” So-I did. We headed towards Lucky Peak and I was able to keep up for a little while, and took a turn at leading the pace line. Then all of a sudden, I lost steam. As we kept going, I kept getting further behind. Daniel stayed with me, saw what my speed was and then he and I created a pace line at my pace.
The two groups met up and I told my group, “You’re too fast for me! I’m going over with the other group.” The More Experienced group encouraged me to stay with them, but I told them that I was going at about 14 mph and didn’t want to hold them up (they go a solid 18-22mph, and faster when they can). As I ducked under a chain to get with the other group, everyone started taking off. When we got to the Lucky Peak recreation area, we stopped, took a bit of a break, then headed up the hill towards hill top. The majority of the group that I was with hadn’t been up hills yet, so I tried to give tips about going up this hill…EAT before you start. Start the hill in your climbing gear, things like that. Our group was stopping just above the dam to regroup, and meet the More Experienced group who were going up to the top of hilltop.
Side note: I’ve been curious about how, if any, the spin classes that I’ve been taking all winter will help me with hills. This particular hill, I always end up in my granniest granniest gear and go 4-6mph. Today, I stayed on my middle ring, and found out later that I didn’t even go to the easiest gear on that middle gear! There was one point where I thought I wanted to go easier, but decided to push myself. My speed also didn’t dip below 6mph. It was typically 6.5 or 7 (still not stellar, but I felt so encouraged)!
When I got to the top of the dam, I thought about going further up towards hilltop, but decided to stick it out with my group. We waited for a little while, then decided to head back down and finish the ride. The rest of the ride was fabulous. It got to the point that I nearly stopped to take off one of three layers. But then the wind would come up and I was glad I had that extra layer on. We got back to the cars and hung out for a little while, talking about mid-week rides and scheduling those. I am looking forward to getting to know my teammates better.
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25.14 miles, 1 hour 50 minutes. 13.8 Average Speed. 31.5 Max Speed. Total Miles on my bike: 1076.2
Right on!! Awesome riding by you yesterday!!!
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