What a weekend! Both Saturday and Sunday had highs of over 55 degrees, so the Saturday rides and the Sunday ride had large turnouts. While it was still slightly below freezing when the wheelsucker left home at 9:15AM Saturday, it warmed up nicely; Sunday morning started above freezing and hit a similar – or better – high.
For Saturday, the wheelsucker’s workout instructions were to get "as much time in zones tempo/threshold power zones as you can accumulate", for four hours.
After lots of e-mail chatter on the ABRT listserver about doing the Goon Ride, everyone but Mike Wagner showed up at Davidsonville, including Ace and Nat and new members Christine and Amy. With ten miles on the wheelsucker’s legs before the Davidsonville ride even started, it was easy for him to roll off the front early, just after crossing Governor Bridge Road, simply by holding Z3 watts. Bill "don’t drop me" Neumann followed the wheelsucker. A couple of minutes later, the tandem rolled up and pointed out that the three bikes/four riders were well off the front. The wheelsucker sat up so as to not split up the ride so early, but the tandem and Bill continued, and after crossing 214 Steve Owens bridged up; that group stayed away to the rest stop (nice going, guys and gals!) Holding wheelsucker Z3 power was an excellent way to go OTB on short climbs, but the wheelsucker would slowly drag himself back, on the flats and descents. Then someone caught site of another group up the road, the peleton surged, and the wheelsucker went OTB big time! Fortunately the peleton slowed at the start of the climb after the left turn on Ed Prout. The wheelsucker caught back on and then just holding Z3 power on the climb, rolled off the front (with the jeers of team mates saying the group was slowing for a pee break ringing in his ears) also staying away until the rest stop.
After the rest stop, a small group split left at Boyd’s Turn Road for the short cut, but the main group did the full course. Ace looked strong on the wall, with Michel hammering off the top and looking good. The wheelsucker, noticing that he was not riding one of his weight weenie bikes, sat up and waited for the tandem to roll by, grabbed a wheel and took the tow back to the front. Shortly after the short cutters were caught on Sudley Road, Ace was pinned against the shoulder by the tandem and several other riders, behind the wheelsucker. Ace asked the wheelsucker to move left – which he did, not realizing that Ace was being pinned deliberately – and Ace jumped hard. A chase led by Nat went after him, but only caught him after the turn onto route 2. The wheelsucker found the tandem’s back wheel and hung on. Later, a tiring wheelsucker was gapped again on the climb out of the flood area on Patuxent Parkway before crossing 214, but the light saved him, and he caught up as the leaders rolled through a fresh green. The setup for the sprint was looking interesting. The wheelsucker took a short wheelsucker pull, rotated off and got to the back of the rotating part of the paceline, just before the start of the last dip. Several of the leaders went over a new pothole, with Rick Paukstitus losing a water bottle, and Ace flatting. With Ace out, Nat went with two guys on his wheel. A chase of Steve Owens, Tom Aga and the wheelsucker were a short distance behind. Nat pulled away for the easy win, with Michel looking strong in second. The wheelsucker put in no effort at all letting first Steve and then Tom tire, and rolled across third.
A few of the riders met for lunch at Chipotle in the Annapolis Mall, after the ride. The wheelsucker was long past being able to hold Z3, and slowly rode to the mall, finding Christine, Amy and Ace in Chipotle, and had a fajito burrito. The tired wheelsucker needed those calories badly!
Wheelsucker data:
Ride time 4:40:26
2899 calories burned (and more than that added between Chipotle and Pussers)
Zone 1 (Recovery) time: 112 minutes
Zone 2 (Endurance) time: 48 minutes
Zone 3 (Tempo) time: 51 minutes
Zone 4 (Threshold) time: 42 minutes
Zone 5 (VO2Max) time: 13 minutes
Zone 6 (Anaerobic) time: 13 minutes
Saturday night was the Latitude/ABRT kickoff party, and a great time was had at Pussers, with the new women’s team and the elite team introduced, a number of team members congratulated on their 2008 season, some key volunteers thanked, 2009 kit handed out and much more. Many stayed for dinner after the party, and some of those ended up at the Doetsch’s place later for more partying and fireworks. Being Doetsch’s neighbor must be rather exciting.
President Doug encouraged everyone to do a 10:00AM Sunday ride. This merged with the Peter Penzell Sunday ride, which turned out to be to Sandy Point and back with some extra loops for high gear/low cadence muscle tension intervals. A large group were in the Annapolis Park & Ride at the designated time, though some number of them appeared to be hung over and short of sleep. The wheelsucker was again trying to do a specific workout – this time it was stay in zone 2 for two hours – and again found himself going OTB on short climbs and then catching back on the flats and descents. As the group started their big gear low cadence intervals, the wheelsucker cut short the ride and headed home for a break and then a recovery/coffee ride with his girlfriend, Leslie. But the sun was out, the temperature was up, and he needed to switch his long sleeve jersey and vest for a short sleeve jersey – it must have been 60 degrees – before heading out with Leslie. They did the Lake Ogleton loop, and then went downtown for coffee. Everywhere they want, they saw cyclists enjoying the day. But the drivers were out in force too, with traffic through downtown Annapolis stopped. Why couldn’t everyone ride their bike?
Wheelsucker data:
Combined ride time: 3:32:39
1685 calories burned
Zone 1 (Recovery) time: 102 minutes
Zone 2 (Endurance) time: 88 minutes
Zone 3 (Tempo) time: 18 minutes
Zone 4 (Threshold) time: 2 minutes
Zone 5 (VO2Max) time: 0 minutes
Zone 6 (Anaerobic) time: 0 minutes
Total calories burned over the weekend: 4584. Weight gain 2 pounds.
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