I should have known there would be trouble today. The alarm clock long silenced, I awoke late with less than half an hour to get out the house and ride the 7 miles out to the Lakefront for this morning's Giro ride. I grabbed a Powerbar, put a few pounds in the slowly leaking rear tire I've been nursing the last couple of weeks, and time-trialed down Carrollton Avenue through the red lights and past the park, hitting the Lakefront at precisely the moment the group came over the Bayou St. John bridge. As usual, the group spun along the lakefront easily as other riders joined in and we climbed the bridge over the Industrial Canal. As we came over the top, there was a patch of broken glass that I had no chance to avoid. I reached down to wipe my tires with my gloved hand, but before I could I heard the hiss-hiss-hiss of air escaping. I made it to the bottom before the rim started to hit the ground and pulled over to fix it. The group, not yet in hammer mode, stopped to wait as I changed the tube and tried out my new Silca mini pump (worked great). Not wanting to make anyone wait any longer than necessary, I only put about 60 psi in the tire, stuffed the punctured tube in my pocket, and we were back on the road within four or five minutes.
As the pace picked up, I found that I was feeling kind of sluggish. Maybe it was the low tire pressure, or the low-carb dinner last night. Who knows? The pace stayed pretty fast all the way out and most of the way back, and I was a little surprised to find Gina consistently at the front taking 28 mph pulls (she must not be studying all the time!). I got in a good workout for sure, but wasn't very aggressive and kept getting stuck behind gaps every time there was a sprint , which is a pretty typical fate for those who think they can suck wheels all the way to the finish, so no surprises there! Max speed today was 38 mph, but that was probably when I was chasing someone on the downhill side of the bridge.
After a sprint up the Casino bridge we returned to Lakeshore Drive, and rather than heading straight home, I went with a few other riders who were heading downtown to catch the ferry across the river. They live on the west bank, and had decided to ride out to the Giro today. After they turned off at Jackson St., we continued uptown down Tchoupitoulas, deposited Kenny and Gina on Louisiana, and I parted company at Broadway, leaving Charlie and Tim with another 10 miles or so to ride out to Kenner where they live.
Tomorrow I've organized a little group training ride across the Lake, and I'm hoping I've recovered enough from today's 60 or 70 miles to enjoy it. It's been quite a while since I've ridden there and it will be nice to be out in the country where there's a little terrain.
3 comments:
Sounds like it was a great day! I can't go on big rides like that without my Balance Bar and Gatorade. :] Very kind of the whole group to stop and wait for ya. :) How many hours did it take you to pedal the 60 or 70 miles? I can do between 30-40 in 3-4 hours. Sometimes 5 if it's a tough day/terrain. I've read that a powerful cyclist can do 50 in 3-5 hours, so I'm catching up good. ;)
Well, speed-wise my usual Giro ride training day is about 1/3 easy, 1/3 moderate, and 1/3 fast. I leave home around 6:30 and usually get back around 9:30, including a few minutes of hanging around and talking after we finish. Although a typical Giro ride, which is about 45 mi., has sections where we are going 27-29, the average speed is probably more like 23 or so, since there are sections where we go slow to let things regroup. My own average speed including the ride out to the lake and back to meet the ride is typically 21-22 for the whole ride of around 60 mi., since if it's a really hard ride I go home REALLY slowly! Now, if we were talking about a 50-mile road race, I would expect an average speed of around 25 mph. for a group of local bike racers and around 27 for a more elite group. A good local-level time-trial rider would be able to average about 25 mph over 50 miles.
Great speed for ~45-60 miles in 3 hours! Pacing oneself like that is probably what I need to do more of, too; I try to keep going like I'm the Energizer bunny; go with one pace until I can't anymore. No pain no gain is an overrated phrase. ;)
I don't know what I average; 25pmh seems like a lot to me for 50 miles! =/ Is there a way to track my speed by a crude comparison scale of some sort? I can't afford anything so I can't track that with a techie device and I'd really like to...
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