Mission Farms ride tonight, 17 miles and this is one well organized ride. Caroline hands out turn lists, designates sweepers and leaders, and stresses safety and the rules of the road.
Everyone seemed to be complaining about being tired and/or sore, most of them from yesterdays Brain ride, me from the Giro d'Hell with Roj, 45 miles of hills, headwinds and rain.
Everyone was taking it easy, it seems, except me. I decided to see how long I could stay with the main group, which turned out to be pretty much all the way so long as I changed colors and saw spots.
My lungs burned, I huffed and puffed and every time I was sure I wouldn't make a light the group made, I did. Which meant I was still keeping up, but also meant a breather lost.
Then, as we got to the downhill/return part of the trip, I saw my average speed was 15.4 mph.
That's faster than my average speed outside the airport pretty much ever. I did 15.4 on 8/17 in Gardner on a relatively flat course, and I've occasionally done better than 14, but except for the downtown airport on June 12 of this year, when I did 16.0 on a nearly flat course for 22 miles, I've never gone anywhere near that fast for any distance.
So I poured it on. I huffed and puffed and stood on it and called out 'on your left' to the occasional rider, and absolutely killed myself trying to get 16.0 to show up on my average speed. Managed to get it to a mere 15.9 mph, at which point the spots I was seeing did that warp speed jump thing and turned into lines as I came into the Mission Farms parking lot.
People always tell me to get a road bike, it'll make the difference. But my goal is to get to 17 or 18 miles an hour average on my hybrid first. Then, when I can afford a road bike, I'll be able to keep up with anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment