John’s Ramblings

I went down to Cycle Therapy (local bike store) to join up with the Tuesday night ride.  Five riders showed, and we started out on a southerly route in order to have the tailwinds when we were headed home.  We did much of the ride in the neighborhood of 20 mph, which is a pretty good workout for this aging body.

Riding with a group of younger / faster / competitive riders serves the very useful purpose of challenging me to ride harder and faster than I would on my own.  There’s no way that I have the mental focus to go out by myself and ride for 75 minutes at 20 mph.  Won’t happen.  I get easily distracted, stop to take pictures, and generally lose focus on the goal of riding fast for a sustained period.  Having to hang on to a wheel and then having to take my “pull” at the front of the group without dropping the pace forces me to step up my game.

Toward the end of the ride last night three of us broke away from the others, taking advantage of the tailwind to set a pace of 25 mph.  The pace crept up from there… The last time I looked down at my cyclocomputer, we were riding over 27 mph, and my heart rate was up around 92% or so of my maximum.  My legs were absolutely on fire.  The end of this little burst came pretty quickly, but it was fun while it lasted.

I am very aware that I’m not in the same league as many of these riders, for a number of reasons.  Still, it was nice to feel like I could “hang” with them for a little while, anyway.

Tags: Cycling

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