Attendees: Shannon, Vince, Todd, Jeremy, Marc, Vin and Jaffe
I know it's been a little quiet on the blog, but that's only because I was doing my own thing last week including the last 2 weekends. The team is still training as always, but I haven't been out with anyone to be able to write about it. Now it's been kind of nice to train at my own pace, pick on "normal" people on the roads, and feel somewhat like I have some riding ability, but the guys wouldn't have it and "pressured" me to ride with the group at lunch again. That's right...I said pressured...ha ha. It's reminiscent of this scene in Godfather part 3:
Anyway, today was hella hot, so it was nice to do a coastal ride with the guys. Since I strained my back just this morning when coming in to work (from pulling my heavy backpack out of my car of all things), I was just going to sit in the back as much as possible until I got dropped. I knew I couldn't use it as an excuse to get out of the ride with these guys given last week's fiasco (and rule #5), so I hope they could at least appreciate that I came out.
Now, sitting in the back sounds easy enough, but there is still plenty of work to do just to stay there. With everyone rotating ahead of me to keep the pace up, it was definitely not the same as riding on my own where I can keep the pace/effort in the sweet spot the whole time. These guys make you work. On Back Bay, my HR was still hitting max in the back and at points considered just dropping since I didn't want to strain my back further. I kept on though since the thought of disappointing looks in the locker room motivated me. At the very end, I watched Shannon practice his sprint for the gate with no one contesting it. Smart.
Todd, Vince and Jeremy also stayed up front and pulled the group up PCH just after Bayside drive. Even that pace hurt and eventually took it's toll on Marc, the first casualty of the ride. Everyone else just hung on...including me. I was content to stay behind those behind Shannon since we knew it would just be a matter of time before he reels in any breakaways.
The first breakaway came at one of the intersections where Todd and Jeremy took off at the intersection before the steep hill heading towards Ocean. Vince gave chase but the rest of us stayed behind Shannon still, probably frustrating him somewhat. I thought about helping though...does that count?
We were able to regroup before we got back on PCH, and Vince, Todd and Jeremy had gapped the rest of us. Jaffe and Vin were still content on staying behind Shannon, so I finally decided to help out here and worked to get us up to Jeremy's wheel. Before we arrived to NPC, however, Jeremy's front tire got flat. He waved us on to keep going, so I did thinking he'd probably catch us up NPC anyway, but Shannon and Vin stayed with him to help out.
On NPC, Vince was encouraging me to ride with Todd, and I wasn't having any of it. Jaffe actually took off pretty fast and was riding with Todd for a little bit, but Vince predicted Jaffe woul be like Adrian where eventually he'll run out of steam. I had set the hill up just to keep a steady pace, and did find my way up to Jaffe who latched on after I passed him. I had inadvertently dropped to my small ring up front, so I was in spin mode while Jaffe stayed with me. However, after a few clicks to a taller gear in the back, I stood back up and it was too much for the distinguished engineer.
I could see Todd ahead of me when I got to the top, and although I thought a regroup would be nice, he was in non-stop mode never to be seen again until the locker room. After getting caught on a light or two, Vince passed me up before San Joaquin and was able to stay outside my reach all the way down the other side...even splitting me off at a light just underneath the 73. Fortunately, I met him down at the bottom again.
We worked together from there, and even climbed and descended the other side of Jamboree together. We almost missed University and had to work our way back to the route, and Jaffe ended up catching us at the first light going up California. From there, I again worked to set a good pace up the hill and Vince got up front toward the end to keep us even more honest.
Great workout today, gents. I think I like riding solo better. Thanks!
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