Saturday was the Tour de Goodwill, a local bicycle tour that's been a lot of fun to do over the last few years. I design the logo, the T-shirt, the entry forms, and lots of other stuff, then I do the ride. Last year I knocked out the 75 mile route and this year I intended to do the 100 miler since I needed the miles and the saddle time to get ready for the races I plan to do in a few short weeks.
Everything started well. I was in the front group and we were motoring along pretty good. It wasn't unusual to see 25-28 mph on the bike computer and be rip-roaring around the turns as we meandered our way out of Shreveport into the countryside. We tipped along 32 mph at one particular stretch which got my attention but we had some hosses pulling the pack along so I wasn't surprised. We also shelled off a lot of other riders who hanging in with us and as we ended the first hour of riding we were down to only 15 in the front pack. I looked over at Mack...who was about to drop off himself...and told him I couldn't keep up this pace much longer if I intended to do the full 100 miles. I knew a number of the guys in the pack were doing the shorter distances so they could afford to expend the energy. Thing was, I couldn't. So Mack and I both dropped off the leaders and went on at our own pace...a bit slower than the 23.4 mph average we had been doing for the past hour!
Both of us rolled along for the next hour on our own, by ourselves into Texas and stopped at the first rest stop about 38 miles into the ride. I was hydrating well and needed to use the portalet. Then we went on mostly at a slower pace around 19-20 mph so we could recover from the first part of the ride and still shoot for a 20+ mph average for the 100 miles. As we made the turn south we were caught by a group of six and we had no problem using them for drafting and picking up the pace a little. The wind wasn't in our favor most of the time so I didn't mind putting more space between the times I spent at the front. I really wasn't having any problems but at around 50 miles I took a nice little pull up a hill, dropped to the back and suddenly I was getting gapped! I tried to catch back on but it wasn't happening...it was like I lost all my energy just like that! I watched Mack and the rest go on, so I decided to just keep pedaling until I felt a little better. That wasn't going to happen....
For the next 20 miles, I found myself just hurting...my neck, shoulders, arms, legs...I wasn't bonking and I wasn't having any problems with the heat (although I was glad it stayed cloudy all day). I just wasn't doing well. I was having a bad day. I did 70 miles two weeks ago and had no problems, but here I was, currently riding nowhere near as well as I did then. I found myself crawling at 13 mph as I came into the village of Keachie and made the decision to pack it in. I had 30 miles left and I was figuring that it would take me 2.5-3 hours to cover that the way I felt when, normally, I could ride that distance in 90 minutes easy. I wasn't going to sit on a bike saddle for almost three hours when I didn't have to, plus it was only going to get worse if I kept on. It wasn't a race and I already had some quality miles so far...why continue the suffering? I've already done my share of bicycle death marches over the years and I didn't see a need to increase the number by one on this day. I stopped and called the organizers to send a truck out to get me. I did 74 miles in 4:04....that's ridiculous. I was taken to the rest stop in Frierson and Jonnene came out for me later. The shower at home felt great.
J had a much better ride. She did the 68-mile route and knocked that out quite efficiently. She had a group of triathletes to ride with and they motored along real well. I think her average speed was 19.9 mph (mine ended up a paltry 18.3!). She did very well. We had pizza that night and I downed a 20 oz Dr. Pepper like it was in a shot glass. Yummy! Ride to eat, eat to ride...that's why I do this!
Sunday we went down to Natchitoches to have lunch with my niece who's attending the arts and sciences school for high school students at NSU. We wanted to give her a change of pace since she was staying the weekend there instead of going home. It was fun. We ate at a nice south Louisiana themed family restaurant downtown, went window-shopping, and visited. I hope she enjoyed the day since she had to do some serious studying that night...finals are going on over the next two weeks! I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore! The real world is tough enough.
This morning I went out with the morning ride group and it was a hard ride for me. I was still feeling Saturday in my legs and I actually had to do some work to keep up with the other five guys in the paceline. All I could feel was the pain in my thighs which eventually went away toward the end of the ride. I even ended up doing some hill repeats before I got home so I'm recovering bit by bit. There's rain in the mid-week forecast so I need to do tomorrow's morning ride in case Tuesday Worlds gets rained out.
No comments:
Post a Comment