I was able to make it to my first group ride of the year last night. It was a smaller group of eight riders of varying abilities which was good for me since my training has been well under the norm so far this year. Hopefully last night's ride was the turning point of that problem though.
I headed out about an hour early in an attempt to get the blood flowing through my legs again. Rode around on the paved trails in Waterloo and Cedar Falls putting in a few slow sprint efforts and a couple of climbing intervals to get things going. I was out in the open a few times and really got a feel foe how brutal the wind was going to be. It was almost directly out of the South at around 20-30 mph and stayed pretty steady. I was feeling fairly decent around 5:50 and decided to head over to
Bike Tech to meet up with whoever decided to come out and play.
We decided to head West out of town on 27th street before turning South into the wind until we reached Dike and then return along the same route. The crosswinds on the way out were doing their part to tear our small group apart as we worked to stay together just as much as we worked to keep our bikes upright. It did not take long before we were down to a group of five and then I was spit out the back. I tooled along keeping the leaders in sight and worked to get my form back. I then saw Craig get spit out and tried to bridge back to him but, although I was gaining on him I just didn't quite have enough to catch up.
The trip South to Dike was a tough one, for me anyway. Wind resistance training is great in the overall scheme of things but, at the beginning of the season it is definitely tough. Once in Dike, we regrouped and then made our way back to Cedar Falls along the same route. Heading North was great of course and then going back East was another lesson in keeping the bike upright.
Once back to town, I rode with Paul Meyermann for a few miles and talked about riding before I then peeled off and headed home. I was bouncing in and out of my own pain cave last night which is exactly what I needed. It will help me gauge where I am now and what I need to do to get myself ready for the racing season. Weathering permitting, more of the same on Thursday night.
Read the complete post at http://carlosdajackal.blogspot.com/2008/04/time-for-pain.html