So, knowing I needed to get some miles in I rocked a quick modified city loop on Saturday afternoon before heading to Dr. Rob's. Rob was hosting a get-together as we're seeing off our buddy Scott. Scott is an original CLM gangsta, so his departure is not altogether pleasant. The upshot is that he is moving to Spain for work, and has invited us to visit soon and often. Score.
The mod-CL was nice for a few reasons. First, I finally broke through the 20mph avg for a solo ride >20 miles. Throughout my training, Coach has pushed me to beak this particular barrier at increasingly lengthy distances and I've failed to do so at any distance! With the wind whipping first in my face and then as a tailwind, I managed 20.5mph over 25 miles in the city. Whew.
Today, I wanted something longer and easier given that yesterday was a short sufferfest. The weekend goal had been to race (snowed out!), so Coach and I patched together these two workouts to keep me on track as best we could. I joined a pretty quick group heading out from Lewisville at noon. We rolled for nearly 50 miles keeping a pace near 19mph. Not too fast, and certainly not too stressful considering the size of the group (around 14).
Coming back up Powerline Hill, a fellow stick boy (Kyle) launched from the group, so another anti-gravity fella (Doug) and I followed. About halfway up, my two compatriots fell victim to the beast that is Powerline and her two-pronged attack. I used the remaining 500 meters to practice attacking on shorter hills - per the rumors I've heard about the Battenkill route.
Once back into my known routes outside of Lewisville, the pace increased significantly. Turbo Hill was again the Great Decider, as our trio from Powerline reformed. This time, we stuck together and made our way back to Lewisville with a good gap on the remaining crew. In the last 10 miles, we increased our average from 18mph to 18.9mph. We were moving.
Still hunched over bikes in the parking lot, someone reminded me that it's still Winter, and I smiled just a little bit. "Yeah, it is."
Here are a few pics...I particularly like the dumpster sign advising one not to live in it.
2 comments:
If you factor in slowing to a stop for the stoplights and getting back up to speed after the stoplight, a 20.5 mph average in the city is bookin it. Nice work!
Drew - I stopped the speedometer twice. Once at the left coming back onto Peacehaven from Polo and once at the light at the scary gas station on Country Club. I was pumped, too!
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