GPS stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80254182
For the first time as a group, we (okay it was Vince) decided that hill repeats would make for a good training route today. To avoid traffic, we chose Starcrest as the hill to do so. We didn't have any set landmarks for the repeats, so where we all stopped and descended/ascended may not have been consistent across the board. Either way, there was plenty of climbing on this route with over 2K elevation achieved.
It was suppose to start out mellow where the intensity was going to be applied upon the climbs (so I thought), but Gary and Adrian saw it differently and pushed the pace from the beginning. I really wanted to tax my legs on the climbs, so I opted not to try and keep up early on and stayed with PV until we got onto Bonita Canyon. PV, the maniac that he is, opted to do this on his mountain bike and was able to hold the roadie pace for a respectable period of time heading out. Impressive!
Once on Turtle Rock, Adrian had gotten ahead on the climb, but Shannon and Marc wasn't too far behind him. I had gotten by Gary once on Turtle Rock and had caught up to Shannon and Marc just as they closed the gap on Adrian right before Starcrest.
There was a little confusion as to what to do once we got to the base, but I think I just indicated to the others "keep going." So that's what I did. All together, we did 5 repeats and it was cool to keep seeing one another as we kept going up and down. Gary and Shannon even offered some encouraging words, but I was having difficulty speaking (breathing) where I could not return them.
I had gotten a head start on the climbs, but groups seemed to form behind me: Adrian/Marc/Vin was one, Shannon/Vince/Gary and PV was another but with Shannon and vince passing Adrian's group on the 4th or 5th ascend.
Now if I didn't mentioned Vince early on, it turned out he did some hidden extra credit where not only did he carry 2 bottles for the ride, one was actually filled with sand to increase the intensity! Nice! I was wondering why he had dropped off early on at E. Peltason, but that explains a lot. His hill charging considering this was pretty amazing. One new suggestion he had for those who perform TLB's in the future will be to have to carry this bottle of sand (we'll call Sandy) on the subsequent outing. I like it!
For the route back, the "plan" was to take it easy, but never a dull moment with this group. We still kept the pace up coming back up over Shady, and shannon led the charge to the bottom. For fun, I thought I would sit on Adrian's side and block him out to prevent the sprint. However, when Shannon kicked up the pace toward the bike trail, I was worked and could not keep him blocked where he and Shannon bolted to the bike trail opening. They obviously could have used another hill repeat.
Shannon and Adrian got the light on Bonita canyon, and PV took his mountain bike over some curbs to get ahead of the rest of us. We eventually got all together before we got to McArthur where Shannon and Adrian were up for some extra credit to Jamboree. However, we were short on time.
On Bison, we were all aware of 5-0 sitting at the light to turn left onto the 73 onramp, so we took it easy for the most part. However, Vin must have felt good with his new wheelset and opted to sprint out to CA. We'll have to teach him about the "sprint diva" term later on, but I had to contest just so he doesn't feel too "confident" on his first Tuesday outing. Now he did have some pretty good speed going where he had started to pass, but I was able to match and start passing after a while. I also probably swerved toward him a little with my bike being twitchy from the wind today, but it was not intentional and may have caused him to check up. I was hoping he wanted to contest more toward the gate in case that's what happened, but I guess he'll have to try again next time.
Good trainer today and we may have to do something similar on NPC on a nearby future outing (pre-L'Etape).
Thanks!
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