Wednesday Ride with a few of the Tuesday Crew

GPS stats:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/76221947

I think we're beginning to disrupt the regular Wednesday rides with more of the Tuesday crew coming out on these days.  Tues/Thur regulars Vince, Todd, Mitchell, Eddie, Jaffe and now Hiroshi and Seon came out today, and we were joined by  Vin (still ducking the Type A's), David, Jeremy and Peter.  The 2 latter had not ridden with us before, so I think they weren't expecting that pace. 

Todd and Vince set the pace early once on the bike trail and Eddie and I took some pulls as well.  By the time we got to Laguna Canyon, the average was over 23 mph.  We were trying to regroup with the others who dropped off by this point, but we suspected they may have taken Sand Canyon for a short cut. Nice that Vin, Seon, Jaffe, and Hiroshi were still in the pack.

Hiroshi took the initial lead out once we got going, and I took a pull after.  I think we saw PV and Shawn going the opposite way saying something, but I'm not sure.  Once atop Quail hill, Jaffe gets up front and decides to do a traffic light breakaway (TLB for short from now on).  However, we were all able to regroup at the turnabout. 

Hiroshi and Seon took off followed by Mitchell and Eddie once on the bike trail to University.  Eddie and Mitchell passed the two ahead of them as we did eventually as well.  Then, Eddie starts to sprint away as we all watched  to see how well he'do against himself.  HA HA.  When he slowed up (which turns out was because his seat moved down), we passed and heckled him for going too early not realizing the seat problem. 

On Ridgeline, we regrouped at the bottom, which is unusual.  Either Mitchell or Hiroshi started up the hill first and then Todd took over.  When I got up front, I thought I'd keep the pace up and didn't realize people weren't in my draft until after the first section that pitched up.  Todd, Vince and Mitchell caught up by the stop sign, and Todd and Vince laughed at me for pushing too hard initially.  I got on Vince's wheel and rode with them up but once it pitched up at the end, I was cooked.  Thankfully, we had another regroup point on Summit Court where the others joined us. We did look for Eddie, but he probaby turned off due to his seat problem.

We went down Hillcrest to Starcrest and then right on Turtle Rock, and as I tried to keep the pace up toward the stop sign, my left calf gave me a hint that it wasn't happy whereby I had to sit down at that point.  Vince took over up front after the stop sign, and once we got to Sunnyhill, my left calf wasn't just unhappy, it was downright complaining.  I signaled Mitch and Todd to jump on Vince's wheel from then on. 

By the time I was going up Shady, both calves were actually complaining at that point where all I could do was spin up on the small front ring.  Even that hurt.  The others passed me at that point, so the rest of the ride was just solo for me and not reflective of the others. 

All-in-all, it was still a good training ride despite my calf problems.  I'll have to be more aware of who's coming out on Wed/Fri moving forward.  I did write the following on my personal training blog this morning:

For lunch today, I will be riding again and hope my legs hold up.  They typically blow up a lot sooner, especially my calves, when I ride on a day when I trained my legs in the morning.  I guess it'll depend on who comes out and what the route is.  Looking forward to it nonetheless.

I guess I'm psychic. 

Thanks for workout, gents!  Should be good for tomorrow.