AM Bike Ride
I've been out of town for a few days. Family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Lots of hiking and good food, but not much "training". But, since my kids are 3 and 5, I usually had one of them on my shoulders while hiking. So, that's better than nothing. Here they are:
Since I've been biking a lot (for me), I thought I'd try to ride with the BAM Racing guys again today. We met at the Blue Ash YMCA parking lot at 4:55am. There were three of us at 5am, and we headed off on the usual route. In Madeira, we picked up a 4th rider.
I am not a snob. I want to get that out there early. But the good/bad thing about cycling is it's very easy to "size someone up" quickly. Occasionally, I'm wrong. Often, I'm right. I say it's easy to size people up because you can view someone's fitness level, as with running and swimming, but the person's bike is a big indicator. Of the three disciplines, biking is the easiest to be snobby about. Again, I'm not snobby. I'm riding a 10 year old entry-level Fuji Newest with Tiagra/Sora components that I bought used for $500. So, I don't think my bike stuff is good. I also have a spare tire (gut) I'm still working on removing. But, when I see someone on a high end bike, my first thought is that they must be a good rider. Right? Otherwise, why spend the money for a nice bike? Like I said, occasionally you'll find the guy that isn't that good and has the nice stuff, but usually only the very serious/good riders have the nicer bikes. I've seen a few heavy guys trying to run in Newton shoes - which are expensive for shoes. But the 4th guy today was on a Pinarello Dogma with Champy gears. By the end of the ride, I felt pretty confident that this was the same guy that climbed Kugler Mill last week and made me feel like an infant when he easily passed me. Again, high end bike and I immediately think, "This guy might be a beast. This could be good." I turn into a spectator and enjoy the show!
From the start, we're going faster than I would go solo. This is good. This is why group rides are great. But once we got onto Loveland-Madeira (relatively flat with a slight down and up hill), Pinarello was leading and pushing a strong pace. I stayed right on his heels, in 2nd, and just cranked away. It felt like we were flying and I was so excited to keeping up with these guys. I glanced down at the backlit 310XT (which is awesome!) and saw 29.1 mph at one point. This is WAY faster than I normally go. Looking at the mile splits, I had one mile here at 25 mph and one at 27 mph. Awesome pace. I felt like a little kid who is tagging along with his older brother.
It was awesome, until we got about 10 miles in, and I blew up. My legs were dead. Amateur move. They pulled away, while I was going 18 to 19 mph, so I popped a quick GU hoping it would get me back in the game. They were doing a different route than I'm used to, but the GU finally kicked in and I was more or less able to keep up with them on the flats. They lost me on Kugler Mill's hill, but otherwise the ride was awesome. I'm normally in the mid 15's for average mph, but today my moving average speed was 16.8. Granted, we only did one big hill, which will raise the average compared to my two or three hill route. But, I got props from one guy who said I've come a long way since I first rode with them. I hope to keep improving and maybe one day be able to keep up with group for the entire ride. My competitive side wants to become the Pinarello guy. He was a damn mountain goat! It was really cool to see someone just tear up hills like his did.
This is really the first season I've taken cycling serious, so I have a long road ahead of me before I'm a "regular" with group rides. But I'm encouraged after today's ride. Just two years ago I was 50 pounds heavier with zero endurance, and now I'm almost an average triathlete. We ended up going 27.5 miles in 1:38:57, with an average speed of 16.6 mph (moving avg of 16.8 mph). I didn't wear my HR monitor, as my last run with it had me bleeding a lot. The regular monitor never did that, but the premium one tears up my rib cage. But Garmin estimates I burned 2044 calories on the ride.
I'm planning to ride tomorrow with a co-worker before work. Nothing crazy, as we're both sore. Just an easy 23-25 miler with one hill. I'll run Thursday and Friday morning. I am going to hit the lake for an open water swim Thursday night and Sunday morning. I hope these two trips, where my goal is to just get comfortable in the water, will help me get over my fear of the lake. My half Ironman race is next Sunday, so just a few more days of training before I taper and relax for the big day. I think I will finish without much drama, but my time will probably be north of 7 hours (which is painfully slow). I'm excited to get this one over and behind me, so I can focus on shorter distances (sprint and Olympic). I think I'll do much better at the infamous Morgan's Little Miami Triathlon (LMT) in October. My bike has never been better and my run is a hair better than the last LMT. I'm excited. A flat 18 mile bike ride should feel easy after my morning rides! Watch out LMT bike course!!
Here is today's Garmin Connect data (I hope the link works): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/362064099
Here is today's Strava data:
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