Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/54254626 (not worth clicking on the link though)
I’ll bet you’re wondering how the hell I can blog about a
ride that happened thousands of miles away from me. I’m wondering the same thing, but I thought I’d
give it a try based on Strava information alone.
It looks like Shannon did a warm-up ride on Monday to see
where his legs were by doing some Orchard Hills loops prior to joining the
Tuesday ride. Obviously, he was still
in good form, so he came out and joined the likes of Todd and Galen, which
might be compared to three storm systems coming together making for F5 hurricane
like conditions. It looks like Jeremy,
Hiroshi and Andy came out to join some of the “fun” too, and if anyone else
joined, you know what they say? If it
ain’t on Strava, it didn’t happen….
I can only imagine what it must have been like in the locker
room (not that way) as far as realizing who was going out on the ride. I’m sure everyone was cordial and joking
around, but you have to think deep down inside there was probably a little (or
a lot) of anxiety with what kind of ride would it be with these guys out
there. It was probably the same for
Hiroshi and Andy as they saw everyone who was going out at the corner gathering
spot. I get anxious just thinking about
it.
The start of the ride seemed rather slow, and guessing alone
I’d think it was just a level of mutual respect to where no one wanted to go
nutty too fast and not have enough to finish in the front group. Either that or the strategies were already in
effect early on. On a rare possibility,
it could have just been hot where no one wanted to take off right away since I’ve
been hearing about how warm the weather’s been there. My salty nuts might beg to differ
considering the 109 degrees here in India.
For the most part, it seems everyone stayed together all the
way to Bonita Canyon and even up toward San Miguel. By the time the climb for Spyglass occurred,
it looked like the front group dwindled down to Todd, Galen, Shannon and Jeremy (here he comes again). It
seems based on the stats alone that these four stayed together up San Joaquin
and even up Ridge Park given very comparable segments stats. I won’t care to venture guessing who was at
the top first, but I’m sure there were some exchanges in positions going
on.
Jeremy indicated he dropped a chain at some point, so it
looks like by the time they got to the Pelican section to climb, it was just
the three storm systems clearing the path for everyone behind them. The three continued on seemingly together
down toward Back Bay and up CA still with relatively comparable stats. The problem I see, however, was the route was
set to finish going up Jamboree toward Bison after Back Bay, so I’m thinking
they opted for the route offering a better cool down given how hard they
worked. ~20 mph average for that much
climbing is definitely legit.
Hiroshi, Jeremy and Andy seemed to have all opted to do
their own thing since none of their routes were the same by the end of the
ride. I’m sure Jeremy’s chain drop was
a big contributor to his route change, but everyone was still out there doing
their thing and getting it done. Andy is definitely coming back as he indicated he was giving some on the hills and not just getting it. Kudos
to all.
As for me, I will write briefly that I saw the guys’ Strava
info as soon as I woke up and was getting ready for the gym. I studied it further as I sipped my coffee
trying to imagine what the pain session was like. When I finally got to the gym, I had
originally planned to do elliptical work to change it up since I’ve ran and
cycled on the last 3 days. However, I
kept their Strava information fresh in my mind and opted to do more cycling
work on the stationary recumbent bike. I
did intervals again as I did a couple days ago, and had the settings on 5 for
the low and 10 for the high with each running for 2 minutes. It was during the level 10 intervals that I
would try to spin between 100-110 rpms for the whole time, which on the Precor
bike was pretty tough. Every single time
I’d hit those intervals, I would imagine each and every one of the guys on the
team taking turns trying to punish me for being absent for two weeks. I must have looked ridiculous to others
sharing the gym, but I didn’t care. I
will say that by the end of my workout, one of the guys lifting weights nearby
asked me how long I was exercising for that day. After I let him know it was just an hour, he
said wow, that’s a lot of sweat on the ground.
So yes, even in friggin’ India, people are ragging on me about my sweat problem.
Good job on the ride yesterday, gents. Hope you
don’t mind me using you for
inspiration.
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