In an effort to ride with others who would challenge me, and to also reduce the number of new routes I need to magic up on my own, I joined the Rochester Bike Club tonight for their Friday ride. They met at a mountain bike park in Victor, so about half the people there rode those trails and the other half (5 men and myself) went on the road. I got there a little late, totally flustered for a variety of stupid reasons, but they held up and waited for me.
I was supposed to ride 25 miles today, and expected to ride around 27. We went on a 29-mile route, with just over 2000 feet of climbing. Well, they weren't lying when they advertised it as hilly. I am so stupid for having forgotten that NY is so contoured. Um, hello glacial formations. Even so, the ride was nice, on country roads in the middle of nowhere (I have no idea what towns we were in, though I think I saw a sign for Bristol). Best of all, there were hardly any stop signs. They have a regular Wednesday ride that leaves from a park a few miles from home (that I know how to get to), so I will probably join them for my Wednesday training rides, too. I love cyclists.
Stats:
Maximum speed: 42.3 mph (I did not look at the computer as we were going down that particular hill)
Average speed: 13.9 mph (I swear it was 14.6 a mile out from the end. I don't know what happened)
Distance: 28.76 mi
Time: 2.03.29
This was a totally killer ride. I forgotten how much I hate hills, and at mile 10 I thought I wasn't going to make it any further. Fortunately, a nice man had hung back with me (either he really was as out of shape as he claimed, or he was being exceedingly nice) and even gave me some good tips (keep the hands loose when climbing, climb in a zig-zag, keep heels down when climbing to help pull, and how to draft... sort of). What's super funny is that it turns out his house is almost right behind ours. He and his family have had a rough go of it the last few years, especially this month, but he was really positive and nice. It's like having a personal coach!
A former racer, he said that I'm still young and that all I do is lay around taking naps and eating all day, so that there's no real reason to take so many recovery days as the TNT coaches say. Armed with that advice, we will ride 20 (easy, slower) miles tomorrow if the weather holds. His philosophy is to ride every day. my philosophy is to not kill myself.
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