Group Ride

The last couple of days here in North Carolina have been really nice, with weather in the mid 70's and even 80's. Out riding in just a short sleeve jersey and shorts, it is hard to believe we got a couple inches of snow just a week ago. The nice weather and daylight savings time has made for great cycling, and it seems the season is really getting started.

Yesterday, I did the Group ride. I rode the 30 minutes it takes to get there, and was glad to see that there was a great turnout. About 25 people were there due to the perfect conditions, including Alexander, a strong cat. 3 and Todd, a strong cat. 1 and masters rider, and many other good cyclists. Once we got out of the busy Southern Pines / Pinehurst area, we went up a hill that traditionally marks the end of the warm up and the start of the fun. More than half the pack was dropped up the hill, and we circled around waiting at the top until 9 of us had regrouped. After that we went up a couple more hills, and I took a pretty hard pull, which whittled it down to 6. Other riders also pushed the pace, which distanced the dropped riders.
Maybe 30 minutes later, the six of us sat up, but then the pace increased and again the group was back down to the 6 of us..

Up one of the next hills, I took a short but hard pull, trying to sustain a fast pace. After a little while, I pulled of and saw only Alexander and Todd behind me. All of us took very hard turns on the front for what seemed like a long time, until it seemed that all of us, or at least me, were hurting. We went a little easier after that, stopped at a gas station to refuel, and rode back to the bike shop.

I was feeling very good after the ride, and had a little ways more to go until I had went 4 hours, so I took a longer way home. I was going to do a couple of intervals, but decided not to as I have plenty of form for this time of the season. Instead, I just went hard, but not all out, a couple of times before cooling down. I went for 3 hours 5o minutes, and did about 70 miles, but I'll post the stats after I can download my powermeter.