Eleven. That's the number of riders we had tonight. James even got to go all the way to to the county line - and it's fair to note that could be seen a mile away. Lessee... P5, racing wheels, aero helmet, speed suit... yup, someone planned to lay down a fast lick.
I didn't know what I'd do. Part of me was worried about my legs after the race Sunday and 13 miles yesterday. The testosterone part of me wanted to go TT with James. I surprised myself and didn't TT, instead sticking to the plan from last week.
What plan is that? Greg suggested last week that we try a different rotation. Five of us jumped on board with the plan, which consisted of 15-second rotations in a counter-clockwise direction. Though it was refreshing to have someone else be in charge of the specifics, I'll admit I was a little lost in some of the directions. I thought I had the idea, but he kept stressing a particular part about the slow line adapting to the fast line, and the little red idiot light on the dashboard of my mind kept warning me I was missing something. So I asked for a clarification. Thanks for your patience, Greg. I think I was the slowest kid in the class today.
The gist of what I got out of it was how we needed to adapt our return to the rear portion of the ride so as to accommodate the shorter pull time of the lead rider. Here's how I understood it, and please Greg, correct me if I'm wrong; you pull 15 seconds, pull left, then immediately slow yourself so you move backward quicker, allowing the next guy to come off cleanly without risk of colliding with someone still there.
The hard part of this for me was hitting the brakes, however lightly, caused me to lose hard-earned energy in the form of speed. Now I was forced to regenerate the speed so I could re-attach to the back of the line. This meant a series of accelerations throughout the ride. This is something I am totally not accustomed to, so it was stressful to me, though the overall speed was actually lower than what I could have maintained on my own. Makes sense? In briefer terms, though I could have been faster with less effort, I got a better workout going slower.
A look at my ride data shows why. Look at the heart rate. I peaked at 179, and held in the 160's for most of the time. Usually I'm about 10 beats below that on a TT.
Another indication of how tough it was manifested itself in riders getting dropped. By agreement, before we left it was made clear that dropped was dropped - no waiting for anyone. IT was cut-throat, but the whole point was to push it hard all the way. We lost two of the five riders by the end. We're all good riders, but the constant fast/slow took its toll. It was especially difficult to rotate going up Lost River Hill. That's probably the point I worried about most, because I am a notoriously bad climber by comparison to the rest of you, but I held in there.
I could see Greg was in his element. He seemed very comfortable throughout the ride. The rest of us definitely had a much more difficult time.
The thing I think I struggled with the most was speed in the short pulls. Greg warned us the workout was about perceived effort and adjusting to the slow line - another reference I wasn't sure I clearly understood - but I still found myself looking at mph. Not that I was trying to hit some massive top-end, rather I was using that as a gauge of how the group was riding. I was trying to maintain an average of the speed we'd been holding all along. Greg said, "don't surge when on front"... I don't know if I handled that properly. I thought I had at the time, I was aware of it, but only the rest of the guys can say. I can say I felt the rest of the guys did just fine in this regard.
I'm not sure what the sweet spot is for number of riders in such a line. You have to be able to trust one another, ride a steady line, and above all else maintain space. A rider that starts to yo-yo in their place is going to cause all kinds of trouble radiating back worse than a regular line because there is a lot more stress in the line when riding this way. Five riders worked fine, as did four, but when it got to three it became constant rotation. A fellow had to keep his awareness level up at all times.
Anyway, great job guys!
I didn't know what I'd do. Part of me was worried about my legs after the race Sunday and 13 miles yesterday. The testosterone part of me wanted to go TT with James. I surprised myself and didn't TT, instead sticking to the plan from last week.
What plan is that? Greg suggested last week that we try a different rotation. Five of us jumped on board with the plan, which consisted of 15-second rotations in a counter-clockwise direction. Though it was refreshing to have someone else be in charge of the specifics, I'll admit I was a little lost in some of the directions. I thought I had the idea, but he kept stressing a particular part about the slow line adapting to the fast line, and the little red idiot light on the dashboard of my mind kept warning me I was missing something. So I asked for a clarification. Thanks for your patience, Greg. I think I was the slowest kid in the class today.
The gist of what I got out of it was how we needed to adapt our return to the rear portion of the ride so as to accommodate the shorter pull time of the lead rider. Here's how I understood it, and please Greg, correct me if I'm wrong; you pull 15 seconds, pull left, then immediately slow yourself so you move backward quicker, allowing the next guy to come off cleanly without risk of colliding with someone still there.
The hard part of this for me was hitting the brakes, however lightly, caused me to lose hard-earned energy in the form of speed. Now I was forced to regenerate the speed so I could re-attach to the back of the line. This meant a series of accelerations throughout the ride. This is something I am totally not accustomed to, so it was stressful to me, though the overall speed was actually lower than what I could have maintained on my own. Makes sense? In briefer terms, though I could have been faster with less effort, I got a better workout going slower.
A look at my ride data shows why. Look at the heart rate. I peaked at 179, and held in the 160's for most of the time. Usually I'm about 10 beats below that on a TT.
Another indication of how tough it was manifested itself in riders getting dropped. By agreement, before we left it was made clear that dropped was dropped - no waiting for anyone. IT was cut-throat, but the whole point was to push it hard all the way. We lost two of the five riders by the end. We're all good riders, but the constant fast/slow took its toll. It was especially difficult to rotate going up Lost River Hill. That's probably the point I worried about most, because I am a notoriously bad climber by comparison to the rest of you, but I held in there.
I could see Greg was in his element. He seemed very comfortable throughout the ride. The rest of us definitely had a much more difficult time.
The thing I think I struggled with the most was speed in the short pulls. Greg warned us the workout was about perceived effort and adjusting to the slow line - another reference I wasn't sure I clearly understood - but I still found myself looking at mph. Not that I was trying to hit some massive top-end, rather I was using that as a gauge of how the group was riding. I was trying to maintain an average of the speed we'd been holding all along. Greg said, "don't surge when on front"... I don't know if I handled that properly. I thought I had at the time, I was aware of it, but only the rest of the guys can say. I can say I felt the rest of the guys did just fine in this regard.
I'm not sure what the sweet spot is for number of riders in such a line. You have to be able to trust one another, ride a steady line, and above all else maintain space. A rider that starts to yo-yo in their place is going to cause all kinds of trouble radiating back worse than a regular line because there is a lot more stress in the line when riding this way. Five riders worked fine, as did four, but when it got to three it became constant rotation. A fellow had to keep his awareness level up at all times.
Anyway, great job guys!
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