Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/53312751
Having missed a ride on Tuesday because I thought it was going to rain, I could not wait to get on the bike today and get some pedaling in. Others did make it out on Tuesday and managed to get a good ride in, but subsequently made references to me about Velominati rule #5 (harden the F up). Wow. I'm still wondering where they were for the BWR ride though, but I'll chalk it up as another focal point to make today's training ride that much more interesting.
Answering the call to help me get a great training ride before taking off from training for two weeks, Vince, Adrian, Jeremy, Jaffe, Mitchell, Andy and John L. came out and joined me. Great to see that Andy's coming out more regularly and that he brought his TT bike for the action, and equally great to have John come out again to participate in the madness.
I also brought my TT bike as planned, and with all the motivation from what I wrote above, I was ready to work and in turn make sure everyone gets a good workout also. While I was not up front when pulled away from the corner and subsequently crossed the intersection on Bison, I pushed up right away and immediately brought the pace up hoping to give the guys a taste of what was to come. No one flinched though, and everyone stayed with me all the way to the stop light at University.
Once I got on the bike trail, I checked up to make sure everyone was lined up behind me before turning the screws up again to prevent any accordion effect. Imagine that. Jeremy noticed though and gave me kudos. HA. I felt good on the bike, so I brought the pace up to a respectable level as we made our way toward and into Back Bay.
Since we hit headwinds on the way out on Back Bay, Vince and the others pushed up to keep the pace respectable and I gladly took the opportunity to get a little reprieve from the wind rotating to the back. Everyone was doing great and rotating up, and I would push up once recovered to continue with the madness. Despite the winds, we still managed a ~26 mph average from gate to gate.
When we got on Jamboree and PCH, a gap had formed ahead of us, but we managed to pull them back in by the time we got to Bayside. We did heed John's warning and checked up some once we rode through the bike trail by the trailer park, but I wonder if anyone else would think a 24 mph average through it would be considered checking up. HA
Once we got on Back Bay drive again, the madness ensued. The pace was fast for sure with the average from gate to gate being 28+, but the good thing about it was that it was fairly smooth. Adrian did amp it up on his new EVO frame near the end, but that only catapulted me to finish to the top with Vince in tow.
Vince ended up leading us onto the climb up Jamboree, but the no mercy rule was in effect so I took the front and started to push the pace again. Vince was game and stayed with me as we climbed to Bison, and took the lead after to help keep us broken away. Jeremy, John and Mitchell caught us at the light on East Bluff though, but Adrian opted to time it perfectly to zoom by the moment it turned green.
I watched to see if anyone would respond, but I guess everyone figured Adrian blow up anyway (now why would they think that?). I finally decided to give him a little chase, and passed him midway up the climb on the other side. At that point, I guess I had broken away from the others and started to pull away from Adrian as well. I crossed San Joaquin and was about ready to set up my pace so that I can maintain a gap all the way back through the 3rd pass. Then I hit the following light and thought, screw it. HA. Everyone rolled up on me at that point anyway, so....
The third pass through Back Bay was almost similar as the previous one with everyone pushing up and doing a share of the work. Okay, so maybe a couple guys needed some coaxing, but they pushed up eventually nonetheless. The only difference was that Vince took the front toward the end and started to power up to charge up the wall, but Adrian had set it up and sprinted up the hill ahead of everyone with me chasing him up. He got to the top first, but missed the sidewalk due to oncoming traffic.
To keep him honest, I picked up the pace with Vince behind me and we hoped to break away but Adrian managed to jump back on the bike trail at the intersection and latch on. Vince took the front before the Jamboree underpass, but knowing Adrian was behind me, I waited until we got past the last little rise before taking the front again. Seeing that it was clear ahead of me, I knew I would be presented with the likelihood that someone would sprint by me before California. I opted to utilize the Shannon/Galen method of defense though and started to really ramp up my speed about half way as an option to prevent the sprint and guess what...it worked! Sweet!
Even with the pace we were setting throughout, Jeremy, John (who I found to be really impressive given his infrequent outings with us), and Mitchell were STILL right there coming up behind us within seconds. Jeremy and John even started us up the climb on CA, but despite Vince declaring it recovery hill (or something to that effect), I pushed up again and decided to make the best of the end of the ride. I wasn't sure who was behind me and/or who would contest for a sprint to Bison, so I just kept the pace up as much as I could hoping for the same defense strategy I just used on the bike trail. While it worked again, Mr. "Let's_make_CA_recovery_hill" was just behind me as I started to cross the Bison intersection. HA.
Given that this was our fastest group average for this route (23.7 mph), yet only have one medal and not even anywhere close to a KOM, I think this indicates how we pretty much rode at threshold most of the time. I just looked and Strava proved this showing 71% of the time was spent in this zone. This hopefully proves how a smoother but elevated pace can be overall faster than some of the interval-type surging rides we do typically at lunch. Prove, shmove...it's fun either way. HA.
Thanks for the workout today, gents! Great work out there for sure. See you in a couple weeks!
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