Long Rides in the Country

Unable to make the Tour de Tuscaloosa, I instead consoled myself with a couple of long rides in the country this weekend. Saturday we had an NOBC club ride on the calendar for the northshore. These rides are actually a lot of fun because they attract a nice mix of riders. The plan is to end up with two groups about mid-way through the ride so that nobody ends up getting dropped, lost, and calling me for directions from Bogalusa. I loaded up my backpack with an assortment of clothing options and rode out to Puccino's to hitch a ride with Viv at 7 am. Once over on the northshore, we had a nice little group of maybe ten, I guess. It was a lot colder over there than it had been on the southshore, and just to make it feel even colder, there was a fairly thick fog. I pulled on the knee and arm-warmers, a couple of jerseys, long gloves, etc. I knew it was supposed to eventually get up into the low 70s, but with a starting temperature of around 40 I just wasn't willing to be cold for those first ten miles. After all, that's what all those jersey pockets are for, isn't it?

The pace stayed mostly in the moderate range out to the turn at Highway 10 where we regrouped. At that point we kind of let the dogs loose so that there would be a faster "A" group and a slower "B" group. Pat told me that he would keep track of the "B" group and that they would take a little shortcut so that we could all meet up again at Enon for the final 14 miles back. This worked out pretty well. A small group of four or five formed and kept the pace fairly brisk until we all got back together. After leaving Enon, of course, there had to be a little push up the Watchtower Hill, and as usual that split the group up, so when we got to Tung Road I turned back and rode back in with a little group. Despite the relatively moderate pace, I found my legs a bit sore that afternoon. I guess I spent a lot more time out in the wind than usual. I put a little photo album up on the NOBC website with a few photos from the group ride.

So Sunday morning I headed back across the lake with Diego and Mignon for the regular Sunday northshore ride. The weather was a little warmer and the wind a little stronger, and I was expecting to get a pretty good workout. We started out with about a dozen, this time without the fog. As usual, I was warmly overdressed, and by the time we stopped just past Enon for a nature break and wardrobe adjustments I was more than ready to strip off the knee-warmers. I would have taken off the arm-warmers too, but I figured they wouldn't really be so much of a problem. The pace on this ride was fairly aggressive with some attacks and sprints thrown in for fun. I guess I'm still not feeling quite ready for the big sprint efforts, which isn't too surprising considering my training. We really need to work out someplace to have a weekday training race because the chances of me doing intervals and sprint workouts by myself are rather bleak. Anyway, we had a good hard pace on the back stretch as usual, and although a few people came off the back along there, most were back with us pretty soon. We didn't make many stops today, which was good. The longer we were out, though, the stronger the wind was getting. By the time we had to ride back toward the west on Hwy 1072 it was blowing pretty good. Most of the rest of the ride was in crosswind or headwind.

My legs were starting to feel the effects of two long rides in the hills, but in general they were still good. Even better, the right foot seemed quite happy. Perhaps that Specialized footbed and that little wedge I put in there are actually doing the trick. For the past few years it has been routine for me to have a lot of classic neuroma pain in my right foot by the time I hit 50 miles or so, especially on a hard ride. This weekend, however ..... no problems at all. I could definitely get used to this.

So anyway, today's ride was great, despite that little episode where the three deer bounded across Lee Road right in front of the group. Had to tap the brakes for that one. You never know if there's just one more deer waiting to come flying out of the underbrush on a collision course with your ribcage.