Did I Do That?

Massive workouts for this weekend. Well, massive if you look at my prior months. About right if you see what is coming up on my schedule soon. I had a 5 hour bike for today, and tomorrow, I get to swim and run. Woot!

The plan called for rolling hills with six five minute hill repeats. I love the Silver Comet Trail, but I would not characterize it as rolling. Gentle might be a better word, but definitely not rolling.

Now, I'm a pleasing kind a guy, and I like to keep coach happy. When she says rolling, by God, that means I go do rolling. My recent ride at the Bud Plant was definitely rolling, a little hilly even. I decided that was the place to go. I would go out there and try to do two loops of the 45 mile route.

Last night, I printed out the cue sheet, packed up all my gear, and hit the bed at a decent hour. Is that even normal with the Olympics on? The alarm went off at 5:45 AM. I was slow to get up, slow to eat breakfast, slow to pack the car, just plain slow. I thought the last minute that I should print out a map, just in case, you know. I finally got out the door around 6:30 AM.

I wasn't really excited about riding in the dark. First light was the right idea for me. I also, to be truthful, wasn't excited about riding this by myself. I was afraid that I was going to get lost. I pulled into the parking lot at the Bud Plant shortly after day break, and the place was full of cyclists. I had no idea the place was this popular. A group of 12-15 riders took off in a group as I prepared my bottles. By 7:10 or so, I was off.

This ride was totally different than my last ride. There was no immediate hell bent for leather start. There was no struggling to keep pace with the fast group. I rode my ride, and I enjoyed it. The first couple of hours was familiar ground. I got chased by the same dog as last time, but now, there were no tri-chicas bringing up the rear to distract him. I honestly think he just wanted to run with me. He never barked, never tried to bite me, and let me go rather quickly. He needed to conserve energy you know. Lotsa riders coming through today.

After my little adventure with the dog, I refocused on finding a hill for hill repeats. Coach wanted me to do 5-10 minute hill repeats with 5 minutes of recovery. I finally settled on a hill, the longest I could find, and did my repeats. The hill was only 3 minutes long, but it was one of the longest around. By the end of the last repeat, my snappy feeling legs were, well, feeling less than snappy.

When I came to the spot where the route split, I decided to go ahead and do the 65 mile route. I figured, with the repeats, it would take me about 4 hours to do the ride. I could then do as many loops of the 12 mile route as I wanted to make up the time. Feeling brave, I set off on the sixty-five mile route, without cue sheet, without map. Everything was going fine until I ran into a section of newly paved road. The little spray painted symbols were no longer there.

I came to a three way intersection and had to pull up. A group of twenty riders or so was coming in from the other direction. I figured they had ridden out of Cartersville. Right behind them was another group of 15 riders. After they passed, I fell in behind them. I couldn't keep up, and they soon disappeared. Along this stretch of road, I got attacked by another set of dogs, but luckily, none of them tried to bite me. The poor little weiner dog was just a runnig and barking. He was so cute.

Where the road dead ended, the other riders were long gone. I didn't see any symbols at the intersection. I decided to take a right. Yea. That ended up being a mistake. When I got to the next intersection, there were no symbols either. I thought I better turn around. Back up the hill I climbed to the turn, and then I saw them. The symbols were a little ways up the hill. Back on track!

Off to the left here, I saw something and did a double take. There were a few goats and flock of turkeys in the pasture. Damn turkeys!! I hunted them for years (15) and never shot one. They are much smarter than I am. I relaxed when I made the turn at the point where I ran off the road and into the barbed wire fence. Oh yea, that didn't happen. I forgot. Plausible deniability and all...

As I made a left turn onto the main road, I fell in front of two groups of riders. The first group passed me by and kept going straight at my next right turn. The second group fell in behind me and joined me in teh turn. They too passed me by. Everybody was really friendly. I wasn't trying to, nor could I match their pace, and they soon left me behind. I could really feel my thighs as I grinded my way back to the Bud Plant. Every little rolling hill seemed to suck a little more life out of them.

I pulled into the intersection near the Bud Plant with 4:10:00 showing on my bike computer. OK! I could take it easy and do one 12 mile loop, and that would get me pretty close to 5 hours. Coach said not to worry about pace. I set back off down the route.

There is something mental about seeing the finish line, but still having fifty minutes to ride. Let me tell you. That 12 miles hurt. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as my last ride at the Bud Plant, but I had to do the entire loop this time. Somebody told me this route was flat. Well, once again, it is not. My definition of flat is a piece of paper. LOL!! I quickly reached the turn off from the other routes, and made a left back to the west. The roads in the area were fairly quiet, but I soon found myself on a main road, heading north.

I let out a big "geesh" as an eighteen wheeler came barrelling by me in the other lane. Up ahead, I could see the symbols in the road. I was shocked, literally, when I came up on them, and they were directing me down this crap road on the left. With out even thinking, I banked left and took off down the road. The road looked like it had recently been grated. It was rocky, bumpy, and generally sucked. It is not the kind of road you want your crotch riding on in its fifth hour.

About a half mile down this road, I realized, suddenly, that I had made that left turn without even looking to see if anybody was coming up behind me. I could have been killed. I sucked in my breath, swore, and vowed to refocus my attention on being safe. I could not believe I had done that!!! Being tired is not an excuse for getting killed...

The crap road eventually ended, and the path, like all paths, led back to the car which took me home. I did a little recreational riding in the parking lot to make sure that I reached the required five hours. I assume that I did good. I rode for 84 miles, the same distance as I did in 4.5 hours at the Silver Comet, but threw in the hill repeats. My legs are little tired, not overly sore, and I think I'm ready for my 45 minute swim and two hour run tomorrow.

That, my friends, is a solid training day :-)

Wes

OCN: 84 miles, 5 hours, ~17 mph