I'll begin with the end - the pace line data.
Strava segment report
This day started with a muggy morning 7-miler in which the team did 3 x 1-mile cruise intervals. I played the rabbit, holding 6:40's for all three. A couple of the girls didn't take the directions to ignore my lead-out and paid the price. I can still run 5k's in the 18's - they can't. Their heads have to tell them to ignore me and run their own paces. Some people learn faster than others, I guess.
It wasn't exactly an easy workout for me either because of the weather. though it was only 77 degrees, the dewpoint was 77 degrees and the humidity 100%. That's a pretty deadly combination for anyone, and I was soaked when I finished. I'm guessing the run cost me 3-4 lbs. at least. Luckily there were hours left until the evening ride.
I did my best to hide from the weather the rest of the day. My wife might describe me as "worthless", and that would be fair enough. I do feel some pangs of guilt over it, but it was completely self-defensive. Tonight's ride was going to be a rough one.
The last two nights I've ridden quality. I won't call it all-out, because neither ride was, but they were 85-90%, tempo pace if you will, and with limited recovery time, the price would ultimately have to be paid. It would be perilously close to disaster tonight.
There were seven of us who left Allen's church at the start - Galloway, Miller, John T., Jimmy, Scott, Rand, and me. I called it the "Magnificent Seven" on our way out to meet the "Mediocre One". I don't want to be too mean about that, so I'll let the titles be self-descriptive.
The ride out was slow - at least, for Scott, Rand, Jimmy, and me. Galloway, Miller, and John T. got tired of fiddle-farting around with us and left. Again, I didn't care. I was being very conservative, saving myself for what was to come.
I left the myself out of the organizing committee for the workout this time, mainly because I fear I'm always pushing too hard for my plan, whatever that might be. The committee tonight decided on breaking into two groups, and Scott would lead out as the rabbit alone. No, we didn't kick Scott out of the groups; he wanted to ride alone (new P2 he wanted to test!). We had a light wind that started as a WSW, appeared to turn more SSW, but as soon as we started it sure felt more in the face than to the side. Scott would have a hard time on his own.
The first group allowed Scott 1:16 before they took off. Our second group gave another 1:30 before we went. That felt like a pretty good spread, about right really. Miller, John T., and I would ordinarily had no trouble covering that gap, but tonight we were trying to ride a bit more conservative for John T's sake - he's racing a half-ironman this weekend.
John T. took the first pull, and other than going a bit long, he did a good job controlling himself. Then Miller got on. John T. held his speed in the 25's - Miller went to 27's. I knew then the peace wouldn't last.
My first pull happened just to the west of Bromer. I took the speed up enough to be able to crash into the hill with some energy, and we topped at 23+. That wasn't challenging for these guys, and we continued on. I brought the speed back up in the slight rollers, then as the course dropped, I took it up a bit more and tapped. It had been about 2-3 minutes.
John T. was on again, and he took us downhill quickly. There's no way to complain about that - it is downhill after all - and just before Pumpkin Center, he tapped again. Miller took over and took us up again. He held on until shortly before the drop, and it was my turn again.
It was around this time (or just before) the first group became really visible to us. Because of the bends in the course we hadn't seen much of them, though we were steadily catching. Once the road opened up it became obvious we were going to catch them, and it would be in the next couple of miles. One of the riders popped off the pack before the descent. He would be first.
They dropped into the valley and sped across the plain. We came down behind, maybe 10-15 seconds behind. I gauged how close we were to the dropped rider, and figured we'd catch him before we were halfway across the river bottom. This particular rider has a bad reputation for doing erratic things, like trying to jump into a passing line. It wouldn't be bad if he could do it safely, or at the very least in a way we could understand before he did something silly, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Our top speed was 36.5 mph downhill. I used this smash to accelerate toward the rider. I got on the pedals and maintained 32 mph. I slid into a line directly behind him so his peripheral vision would not pick us up. I was all-out on my cassette so he couldn't hear a shift. This was complete stealth mode.
It worked perfectly. Right before we got to him we popped wide, buzzing past with over a 10 mph advantage. There was absolutely no way for him to respond to it. It was over before he knew we were there.
I held the front until we topped Lost River. I know John T. was itching to go, and could have taken us over the top at 20+. I didn't want him to do that. Not because I couldn't; because his race this weekend was more important than this ride. Once on the top, we were practically on top of the first group. I took the speed up to 25 mph and tapped.
John T. got the honor of passing the first group, a nice foretaste of the coming weekend I hope. We got by them in the rollers heading into the last climb. John T. tapped and it was Miller Time.
Miller did a nice job on the last hill. I believe this is the area in which we finally caught Scott, who by the way had a terrific individual effort. Miller took us over the top and to the finish. I was behind him with no intention of pushing for the win.
Strava segment report
This day started with a muggy morning 7-miler in which the team did 3 x 1-mile cruise intervals. I played the rabbit, holding 6:40's for all three. A couple of the girls didn't take the directions to ignore my lead-out and paid the price. I can still run 5k's in the 18's - they can't. Their heads have to tell them to ignore me and run their own paces. Some people learn faster than others, I guess.
It wasn't exactly an easy workout for me either because of the weather. though it was only 77 degrees, the dewpoint was 77 degrees and the humidity 100%. That's a pretty deadly combination for anyone, and I was soaked when I finished. I'm guessing the run cost me 3-4 lbs. at least. Luckily there were hours left until the evening ride.
I did my best to hide from the weather the rest of the day. My wife might describe me as "worthless", and that would be fair enough. I do feel some pangs of guilt over it, but it was completely self-defensive. Tonight's ride was going to be a rough one.
The last two nights I've ridden quality. I won't call it all-out, because neither ride was, but they were 85-90%, tempo pace if you will, and with limited recovery time, the price would ultimately have to be paid. It would be perilously close to disaster tonight.
There were seven of us who left Allen's church at the start - Galloway, Miller, John T., Jimmy, Scott, Rand, and me. I called it the "Magnificent Seven" on our way out to meet the "Mediocre One". I don't want to be too mean about that, so I'll let the titles be self-descriptive.
The ride out was slow - at least, for Scott, Rand, Jimmy, and me. Galloway, Miller, and John T. got tired of fiddle-farting around with us and left. Again, I didn't care. I was being very conservative, saving myself for what was to come.
I left the myself out of the organizing committee for the workout this time, mainly because I fear I'm always pushing too hard for my plan, whatever that might be. The committee tonight decided on breaking into two groups, and Scott would lead out as the rabbit alone. No, we didn't kick Scott out of the groups; he wanted to ride alone (new P2 he wanted to test!). We had a light wind that started as a WSW, appeared to turn more SSW, but as soon as we started it sure felt more in the face than to the side. Scott would have a hard time on his own.
The first group allowed Scott 1:16 before they took off. Our second group gave another 1:30 before we went. That felt like a pretty good spread, about right really. Miller, John T., and I would ordinarily had no trouble covering that gap, but tonight we were trying to ride a bit more conservative for John T's sake - he's racing a half-ironman this weekend.
John T. took the first pull, and other than going a bit long, he did a good job controlling himself. Then Miller got on. John T. held his speed in the 25's - Miller went to 27's. I knew then the peace wouldn't last.
My first pull happened just to the west of Bromer. I took the speed up enough to be able to crash into the hill with some energy, and we topped at 23+. That wasn't challenging for these guys, and we continued on. I brought the speed back up in the slight rollers, then as the course dropped, I took it up a bit more and tapped. It had been about 2-3 minutes.
John T. was on again, and he took us downhill quickly. There's no way to complain about that - it is downhill after all - and just before Pumpkin Center, he tapped again. Miller took over and took us up again. He held on until shortly before the drop, and it was my turn again.
It was around this time (or just before) the first group became really visible to us. Because of the bends in the course we hadn't seen much of them, though we were steadily catching. Once the road opened up it became obvious we were going to catch them, and it would be in the next couple of miles. One of the riders popped off the pack before the descent. He would be first.
They dropped into the valley and sped across the plain. We came down behind, maybe 10-15 seconds behind. I gauged how close we were to the dropped rider, and figured we'd catch him before we were halfway across the river bottom. This particular rider has a bad reputation for doing erratic things, like trying to jump into a passing line. It wouldn't be bad if he could do it safely, or at the very least in a way we could understand before he did something silly, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Our top speed was 36.5 mph downhill. I used this smash to accelerate toward the rider. I got on the pedals and maintained 32 mph. I slid into a line directly behind him so his peripheral vision would not pick us up. I was all-out on my cassette so he couldn't hear a shift. This was complete stealth mode.
It worked perfectly. Right before we got to him we popped wide, buzzing past with over a 10 mph advantage. There was absolutely no way for him to respond to it. It was over before he knew we were there.
I held the front until we topped Lost River. I know John T. was itching to go, and could have taken us over the top at 20+. I didn't want him to do that. Not because I couldn't; because his race this weekend was more important than this ride. Once on the top, we were practically on top of the first group. I took the speed up to 25 mph and tapped.
John T. got the honor of passing the first group, a nice foretaste of the coming weekend I hope. We got by them in the rollers heading into the last climb. John T. tapped and it was Miller Time.
Miller did a nice job on the last hill. I believe this is the area in which we finally caught Scott, who by the way had a terrific individual effort. Miller took us over the top and to the finish. I was behind him with no intention of pushing for the win.
- I was tired
- I didn't want to incite John T. to do something he shouldn't
- Miller earned it
John T. later revealed he had no intention of trying - too much potential to hurt himself, get in a wreck, or some other mishap.
It was a great ride. My official Strava time was 23:21, good for 25.6 mph on a night that was far from favorable and we were conserving to boot. The first group did pretty well too. While they didn't ride as quickly, they did hold together (except for the one, who never had a chance to hang in there).
I won't ride tomorrow, which is probably a good thing. The weather looks pretty nasty. Hopefully the storms will clear things out a bit and we'll have better training weather the next day. I'll probably pick up a ride then.
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