Question: When is riding a Fixie like playing Russian Roulette?
Answer: When you ride it for the Saturday D'ville group ride.
Yesterday after ACE asked about who was riding today, there were a few exchanges about the possible pace for the D'ville ride. I think I proposed "sane and steady", whatever that means, but Ian responded correctly with "Give it up, old habits die hard". Having been riding my fixie a bit, I think sure, I'm ready to give it a try, especially if others are doing the same (Ian, Doug, Greg et al). I'll just take my chances with the pace - Russian Roulette.
So I show up at the park and ride with my Steamroller. Given that I have a Corolla and no rack, I can only bring one bike, so I am comitted. At this point, I'm feeling like I have a revolver against my head with 1 bullet somewhere in the rotation. I'm looking around and not seeing any other fixies. I try to talk Tom Aga into riding his fixie (he's smart, he brings 2 bikes). No dice. Uh oh. Luckily Ian and Doug roll in on theirs. Click. Nothing. Whew.
We roll out down the hill and onto Patuxent River Road. Then the pace starts to ramp up with some of the ususal "we have to go at some ungodly power level (for me anyway) beacause that's what my coach says" types on the front. Uh oh. Then as the gap opens up they go off the front and the rest of the groups sits back, "steady and sane". Click. Nothing. Whew.
The pace continues sane and steady, even Bill Neumann appears to be enjoying it! Then we get to Brooks Woods; towards the latter part of it, I'm starting to spin pretty hard, some gaps start. Uh oh. After the turn, it slows and regroups, and I make it comfortably to the store. Click. Nothing. Whew.
We leave the store with ACE leading the charge. All of a sudden I realize that I'm working really hard to keep the wheel in front of me. ACE is doing an interval. Uh oh. He finishes before we get to Boyds turn and I catch my breath. Click. Nothing. Whew.
At Boyds Turn, there is some quick talk about who, if anyone, is doing the shorter route. Looks like no one is, so I keep following. The tandem goes by and I'm on the wheel. We start going down the first big roller, I'm spinning at a gazillion rpms and about 37 mph. Uh oh. Big gap. Click. BANG!
I'm gone. Oh well, I made it 4 rounds. I figure its all for the better anyway as it will spare me the indignation of being left for dead over the wall. After the first roller, there's a cut in the road so I quickly do a 180 and high tail it for Boyds Turn as the north wind alone all the way from North Beach would not be pleasant. I'm enjoying my "sane and steady" pace through Fairhaven, up the horse farm, over the wall and as I come the stop, I see some ABRT jerseys up the road. Sweet, I guess some people DID take the short cut. I work hard to catch them. It's Ian, Doug, Heff and John. This will really help with the wind. Nice to have some company all the way back.
The "beach crowd" gets back a few minutes after us, so they must have been hauling the mail to make up 6 miles in a little over an hour as we were not lollygagging. All in all, a nice December ride, and I'm better for the bloody experience.
You did a nice job of catching up. We weren't really lolly gagging either when we turned onto Boyd's.
ReplyDeleteI was having a pretty solid day until I blowed up real good on that part of Owensville-Sudley where those ramble down shacks and beat up mobile homes are. All the short hills finally took there toll on me right at the point. Further reminding me that I need to stay the course of my current weight loss regime. At least I'm to the point I don't give anything away on the flats.
I think Doug was having no more fun than I, as we both let you all go and we rode together to the convenience store and parted company, he to go home, me to straggle back to the Park & Ride.
At that point my legs were totally out to lunch, and may be happy hour too. I had nothing left in the tank and was bringing it home on fat alone. I couldn't push anything. The Beach group caught me 1 mile from the park & ride. I was happy to get outta the clothing and into street clothes and into a warm truck. It took me the better part of an hour to not feel like I was hypothermic anymore. I don't think I totally hit the wall today, but I wasn't far from it.
Hard rides while maintaining calorie deficits has its own element of Russian Roulette too. I definitely took one in the head today also.
So how many times did you pull the trigger?
ReplyDeleteI know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
I wanted to bump the mileage up a bit, so rode from Annapolis to the ride. I left a little late, so altered the route to intercept on Patuxent Parkway and Governor Bridge, rather than meet at the Park & Ride. I made it to the intersection at about 10:08, but could not see the group either way. So after thinking about chasing away, or heading toward the P&R to intercept, I headed towards the P&R. I had just decided I had made the wrong decision when I saw the group coming at me. I did a 180 and caught back on. Several riders at the back were encouraging me to ride easy at the back, but I was trying to get some Z3 time. This is probably the origin of UMRK's "we have to go at some ungodly power level (for me anyway) beacause that's what my coach says" statement :-)
ReplyDeleteShortly after crossing 214, while I was taking it easy at the back, I noted a tandem, Mike Wagner and Steve Owens going off the front. I hammered down the hill, through the sweeping left and up the hill, without gaining much, I fought to close, but they were pulling away. The last time I saw them was on Sands Road. I never did catch them but stayed away from the main group until the rest stop. Coming out of the rest stop everything was going easy until near the top of the climb out, Ace decided he likes 500 watts! Mike Wagner and I push hard to stay on his wheel. Though Ace soon slows down the next time I look around (in North Beach) we are down to about 10 riders. The tandem (which was FASTTTT!!) was in the group, but none of the fixies were.
It seemed to get colder and colder as the ride went on. We had a steady pace back, with Ace occasionally pushing hard for a little while and the rest of us looking at each other trying to get someone else to close the gap. We were all rather tired for the sprint. Steve Owens went early, then Ace jumped after him hard, I went hoping to get Ace's wheel but could not. Instead Michel was on mine. Up the road Ace had caught Steve. I shut it down 'cause I was not going to make it to them, and let Michel take a pull. Steve and Ace slowed down, so we all came back together as we climbed out of the dip. Ace was only one or two bike lengths ahead, waiting for the last moment to go. I ended up on Tom's wheel, while Rick P. jumped. It was't much of a sprint as Ace rolled around Steve for the win, Rick 2nd, and I stood and pushed past Tom for 3rd. Rather than turn right onto 214, I kept going as I still had to ride back to Annapolis and it was getting colder!