p-erfect

Today I decided that I'd forgo any driving outta town for a group ride, and try something closer to where we live. Before moving here, I jumped on a bunch of cycling message boards to get a feel for what the riding is like and the local scene. People were very friendly and helpful, but the one thing I noticed was they all talked about the "p-ride". In this case, the p stands for Performance, as in the purveyors of such brands as scattante, tirreno, and their own in house brand. Yes...that performance. apparently it got this name because the ride used to start from the original performance shop before they franchised. Eventually, this performance got an upgrade and moved to a new location, and, as such, the ride moved up the street to leave from a local park. I'd heard a lot about this p ride. There was this mystique that it had...there were strong riders...the ex masters national champ shows up frequently...many have started, but not finished the ride....etc etc etc. So, today was the day I was gonna hit it.

All week I'd been riding indoors, and was itching to get out. The ride left at 10:15, so there was ample time for it to warm up from the frigid 26 degrees at 8am. I rode for about 10 minutes or so as a warm-up and made my way over. there weren't many people there, but by the time the ride left, there were probably about 30-35, good sized group! While waiting for the ride to start, someone rode up to me and asked if I raced with the HART guys out in Denver. Whhhaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!? turns out this rider is from Colorado and goes to law school at duke! he raced for brc out in Colorado, and it was fun to chit chat with him about home.

So the ride itself was fast. Very fast. I sat 2nd and 3rd wheel for the first 20 or so then ducked back in. We picked up a whole bunch of people on the road and now there had to be at least 50!!! Pretty cool. We proceeded out of town on the roads I was familiar with, so I wasn't wasting any mental energy trying to calm any anxiety of getting lost (like i did last week...). I hung in the group the whole time , and practiced drafting along with any other pack riding skills I might have been rusty on in prep for the upcoming race season. The general tempo was a good clip, and, people were constantly cycling from the front to the back. I was able to hang on any of the climbs in the front 1/3 of the group, and, then, during the literal halfway point, I pulled through on some pacelining that then became so flippin fast I had to back off because I didn't want to get tangled up in any sort of crash on my first day! Needless to say we were doing roughly 27mph at this point. Physically, I felt fine...mentally I was trying to remain somewhat grounded so I didn't freak out, or, invoke any sort of negative self talk that might otherwise hamstring my day.

The group stopped at one highway crossing (think Speer at like 29th in Denver for a reference of "highway" and traffic volume), then we picked it right back up. I flew up to the front, stayed there for the next 35-40 minutes, and, was just smiling from ear to ear. I had such a blast! I eventually turned off a bit early to get home so we could head down to Greensboro for my father in law's birthday. What a day! I walked in the house smiling from ear to ear and couldn't stop talking about how great it was. I happened to meet a few cool people, and, hope to see them again next week.

Sunday, we got back to town around 3pm, and, I immediatly sent Amy to the gym. I stayed with Wyatt while he napped, and, eventually, when she came home, I jumped on the trainer for an hour of tempo intervals. I was VERY sore from the day before, but, really wanted to boost my acute training load however I could. The menu for the session was 4x10 10 on 5 off at tempo wattages. I picked the "Giro Del Alpi" course, and, tempoed my way up the Colle Della Madellena (Col Du Madelaine). Here's a profile shot of the whole course itself. It's 110 miles! The climb I did was the first one, but, the others include the Col D'Vars, Col D'Izoard, Col de Montgenevre, and, the Colle del Sestriere:

It was a good steady pitch of about 3-5 or 6%, so, I could get into a nice solid groove, and, keep the cadence around 80.

Today (Monday), I had the day off for MLK. Time was tight, so, again, I jumped on the trainr for an hour. This time, it was just a 1hr "ride". I picked the "Argus Tour" which is apparently a ride somewhere in South Africa. Not quite sure where, but, I rode along the Indian Ocean...it was pretty!

Having the Tacx has been a pretty great investment, and, based on how I felt this weekend, obviously a good idea to buy back from my old teammate. I'm so lucky to have it!

Sat ride details :1h 47 min - 1183KJ
Sun ride details: 1h 5 min - 685KJ
Monday ride details 1h - 644 KJ