One Ride Too Many?It Seemed a Good Idea at the Time

Turns out the 7:00AM Rock Creek ride, which is supposedly 7:00AM year round, started at 7:30 this past Saturday; just as well, it was QUITE dark at 7:00, but I had lights. There were three minor crashes early as the road surfaces were a bit slick, probably because the very light drizzle was not enough to wash the oil off the surface. This might have slowed the overall pace slightly. I was more comfortable than the last time I did this ride, so pick one: I am a bit stronger, pace was lower, or knowing the route a bit better helps a lot.

I avoided chasing breaks on Clara Barton and tried to stay fresh for the McArthur Road climb, but the pace on Clara Barton was still high enough to hurt. I started the McArthur climb closer to the front than last time, and instead of gaps opening in front of me, I stood and tried to stay with the leaders as long as I could. This worked for a short time, but probably not even 1/3 of the climb. I kind of lost interest; I am not sure if this is me hitting my physical limit, or lack of mental toughness. Looking at the Powertap data I hit a max HR of 172 on this climb, and my normal max is 173, so that probably was as hard as I could go.

The way this ride works is that the lead group does the climb, turns off McArthur into a park, descends for a few minutes, turns around and climbs out, goes back down McArthur and does one more climb/wall. Everyone else skips the back down McArthur and one more climb/wall, but some also skip going down and up in the park. The dropped riders wait at an intersection for the leaders to go by, and rejoin.

After sitting up and recovering, I got it going for the rest of the climb, passed a couple of dropped riders, kept going into the park (some others stopped there), did a very slight shortcut at the bottom to catch on with a chase of five, and experimented with sitting and standing, seeing how I did with them. While standing gets me my best High Rock times, seated was working better here. After struggling a little to stay with them early on the climb out of the park, I got a gap and led them back to McArthur, though they did catch me at McArthur.

Everyone who was not with the leaders regrouped part way up McArthur and waited for the leaders to show up. There are no long hard climbs for the rest of the ride. I rode near the front, and chased to stay with break attempts. Eventually Chuck Hutcheson and another guy got off the front; there are some sprint points, but I don't know exactly where they are. When people started winding it up I thought it was attempts at breaks, so I just chased to stay on. Chuck H. and the other guy sat up after one of these sprint points, and I had some momentum and rolled by and kept going, but not hard. I looked back after a couple of minutes and had a huge gap. I guess everyone sits up there and regroups. The next time I looked back, I could not see the peleton. I got so far ahead I thought they had turned off the road behind me. This was on Democracy, and they only caught me as I was soft pedaling in Rock Creek Park. I went all the way back to the gate where the 10:00AM ride starts, with a small group.

I decided I was still feeling reasonable, so slowly rode back to the car at East West Highway, ate a bit, got rid of extra clothing (it hard warmed up slightly) and figured I would jump on the 10:00AM for a little while, and then turn around.

Chuck Hutcheson. and a couple of other guys also did both rides.

The 10:00 ride also starts easy and it is some distance/time before it gets hard. I was actually feeling better than I did at the start of the 7:00AM. Recently I have been more willing to stand on short climbs and this does seem to work at times. I was trying to stay near the front but not actually take any pulls; I think I pulled through once. Sure, I know this is lame, but having been dropped a couple of times on this ride, I am trying to conserve energy and hang. Lance Lacy was there along with some of his new Haymarket team mates. Lance was active on the front for awhile, but dropped back after taking a pull and I did not see him again.

There were multiple attacks and desperate chases, but I managed to hang on to the rapidly shrinking lead group. Then it happened: Chuck and two other guys got off the front, I was near them when they went and went hard to try to get to them. I chased and closed, and almost go there, but ran out of gas on a climb, and was caught AND PASSED, AND DROPPED, by everyone left in the chase. I again had that feeling I could not go any harder. I slowed and recovered at the top of the climb and tried to chase briefly, but I couldn't close. I sat up and then waited for a single rider behind me. I think over half the group had been dropped by this time. I was stronger than the other rider, so I had to wait for him for time to time (and I also tired a bit as we got closer to the end of the ride), so I it was relatively easy ride from that point on. I still tried to go decently hard on the climbs, but had to wait at the top for my riding companion on most of them.

The two of us somehow caught three of the guys (two of them were Haymarket) in front as we got close to the end in Rock Creek Park; they must have sat up. They had no idea where Lance was.

Just as I had finished putting the bike in the car and changing, the second group with all the dropped riders, rolled by, going easy. Lance waved from within the group.

Wheelsucker data:

92.16 miles

5:01:50 ride time

3025 calories