Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/88241287
I didn't really make any solid training plans for this week that would be conducive to a good race outing this weekend except for how I wanted some seat time on my TT bike. I know TT bikes are rather frowned upon for our Tues/Thurs lunch rides since 1) it's considered too advantageous, and 2) every lunch ride seems to be some sort of contest where being on a TT bike is considered cheating regardless of training plans. HA HA. I definitely didn't mind doing a lot of work on it though, so I guess I met the contingency that "allowed" me to ride with the crew.
It was a pretty decent sized group today with Todd, Vince, Jeremy, Mitchell, Adrian, Vin and Jaffe starting from campus and John L. joining us from the corner of Jamboree and PCH. It's always nice to have John join us since he's definitely a solid rider and his presence alone typically tends to push the group to work even harder as a result.
At the start of the ride, I knew I should do the leading out so I made my way to the front as soon as I could during the descent down California. We hit the red light, but only sat there shortly where I led us onto the bike trail with crew in tow and Jeremy just behind me. As a courteous team rider, I looked back and made sure everyone was on the bike trail before I dropped onto the aeros to lead us out to Back Bay. This courtesy also extended to the top of Back Bay where I didn't want to group to get splintered on the descent and as we made our way through. I just wanted to point this out because it's rather infrequent during our lunch rides.
As we were riding through Back Bay, I was trying to hold a good pace but I guess Todd got a little restless and started to push up past me. I had started to drop back as he passed thinking I should get in the rotation, but ultimately opted to stay out of the draft to get more wind time on the bike...that and for obvious safety reasons. I decided I was just going to try and match their pace and/or push up to the front when my pace is faster than the groups as a whole. Boy, I just didn't think the group's pace was going to be as strong as it was though, so matching their pace was more just trying to keep from getting too far behind. With everyone taking turns up front, they were moving pretty good. I tried to push up to the front at one point again, but people picked it up while I was on my way where I just succumb to trying to pace them rather than pass them. This may have been because we picked up a rider as we rode down into Back Bay, so I was glad to see this rider roll out and go up San Joaquin instead of finishing up to the gate with us.
I was also glad to see there was no sprint finish to the gate, so I made my way up front to lead us over to Jamboree after we passed the gate. On the climb, I was having a little trouble crossing over to the left turn lane and keeping up, but I was glad to roll up to the group who were stopped for the left to PCH.
Once the group got going, they picked it up right away and this was when John joined us. I was off the back and I guess John was waiting for the last guy (me) before joining. I looked back to make sure he was on after I passed (which likely wasn't even necessary) and started to push to catch the group and subsequently take the front. Todd took over after a while and led us into CDM and through the neighborhood. Jeremy charged up the sprinter hill ahead of everyone, so I guess he wanted to a KOM or at least PR it on Strava...he got the latter.
The pace through Ocean was still pretty good, so I kept a little distance behind trying to get more wind time. Once we came out on Poppy, there were cars blocking the right turn, and some opted to hit the sidewalk while others make a right turn from left of the cars. Oh boy...we may need to rethink some of our riding practices for safety's sake. John was 2nd to the last to make the right turn and seemed a little tentative (I don't blame him) and I ended up doing the same thing but waiting after just to give enough gap to get some solo wind time while in pursuit of the group. Pursuing THIS group on a TT bike is definitely not the same as groups on the weekends, and it took a lot just to be able to keep them in sight. We got caught at the 2nd light just outside of downtown CDM, and I let them go ahead again hoping that they wouldn't lose me at a subsequent traffic light. Lucky for me, I was always close enough behind to be able to get through all the lights they did.
As we approached El Morro, I saw that Jeremy and Vin were off the back at this point, so I hoped that they would latch on when I passed and attach back to the group. I wasn't too far behind the lead group from the u-turn, but Jeremy found his own way onto the back of them and I guess Vin wasn't up for it...not even on his new bike, which has yet been able to produce comparable results to when he was on his Cervelo. Just sayin'.
On the reverse route back to PCH, I saw that Vince and Jeremy had pulled over while Vince was inspecting his front tire. He had gotten a flat at that point, so Jeremy opted to stay with him while the rest of continued on. Vince told me afterward that he actually got a 2nd flat, so I guess today was not a good tire day for him. From the looks of his Strava stats though, it looked like he did great on NPC though, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.
As we resumed our ride, I pushed to the front to lead at that point again, but Todd took the front subsequently also. I had just started and was still building momentum, so I ended up taking the front again and leading a good ways before the NPC climb. Todd eventually passed with Adrian in tow and with John taking off to join them just before we rounded the turn to NPC. I came around with Mitchell and Jaffe attached and we made our way up the hill only to be stopped at the first Pelican light after passing a detonated Adrian. Once we resumed, I led originally but both Mitchell and Jaffe were pushing past me and charging up with some good momentum where I wasn't sure I'd even be able to catch them due to the gap they created. It was only near the top as we approached the 2nd Pelican light that I managed to find a rhythm to make my way up to and past them but with them still sticking to me like white on rice. At the top, John and Todd were long gone, so the three of us proceeded on getting caught at 1 more light at the top.
I was leading Jaffe and Mitchell over to the descent where I thought I'd give it a good run down and not expect that they would keep up. However, every time I looked back, they were both there (probably laughing at how slow I was really going). They stayed with me all the way to the bottom as we hit the red left turn light together.
When the light turned green, Adrian came out of nowhere and made the left turn with some momentum passing us without any regard. I was thinking to myself...hmm...I can do that too. While he seemed to back it down just a notch rather than trying to keep the breakaway (it was strategic according to him so he can latch on easily), I made sure to return the favor passed him pretty fast too. Ha Ha. He latched on though and eventually gave me kudos for the pass and the tow.
We hit a couple lights after the 73 underpass, and on one of the lights, Jaffe started to take the front (what a stud), but I passed wanting to just drop the hammer for the last couple miles to the finish. He and Adrian latched on and stayed with me as we made our way onto Bison, and Mitchell had gotten back on at this point as well. I think Jaffe wanted to finish ahead of us though as he started to take off after the first light on the 73, but when I saw it was green, I took off too knowing Adrian was going to try and sprint past me. The 586 watt average I hit for that section successfully prevented him from doing so. BAM!
My legs are definitely toast now, so I'm hoping they recover in time for Sunday. Shannon's going to join me in the race and will be in the same class, so that's one more person who'll be ahead of me in the rankings. You gotta know though that it's not about me as much as it is about the team (for me anyways), so more power to him. Unlike me, I'm sure he trained up right for it given his absence this week.
Kudos to everyone on the ride today for being so fast. Todd and John killed it on NPC, as did Jeremy and Vince after fixing the flats. Thanks for letting me ride with you all!
I didn't really make any solid training plans for this week that would be conducive to a good race outing this weekend except for how I wanted some seat time on my TT bike. I know TT bikes are rather frowned upon for our Tues/Thurs lunch rides since 1) it's considered too advantageous, and 2) every lunch ride seems to be some sort of contest where being on a TT bike is considered cheating regardless of training plans. HA HA. I definitely didn't mind doing a lot of work on it though, so I guess I met the contingency that "allowed" me to ride with the crew.
It was a pretty decent sized group today with Todd, Vince, Jeremy, Mitchell, Adrian, Vin and Jaffe starting from campus and John L. joining us from the corner of Jamboree and PCH. It's always nice to have John join us since he's definitely a solid rider and his presence alone typically tends to push the group to work even harder as a result.
At the start of the ride, I knew I should do the leading out so I made my way to the front as soon as I could during the descent down California. We hit the red light, but only sat there shortly where I led us onto the bike trail with crew in tow and Jeremy just behind me. As a courteous team rider, I looked back and made sure everyone was on the bike trail before I dropped onto the aeros to lead us out to Back Bay. This courtesy also extended to the top of Back Bay where I didn't want to group to get splintered on the descent and as we made our way through. I just wanted to point this out because it's rather infrequent during our lunch rides.
As we were riding through Back Bay, I was trying to hold a good pace but I guess Todd got a little restless and started to push up past me. I had started to drop back as he passed thinking I should get in the rotation, but ultimately opted to stay out of the draft to get more wind time on the bike...that and for obvious safety reasons. I decided I was just going to try and match their pace and/or push up to the front when my pace is faster than the groups as a whole. Boy, I just didn't think the group's pace was going to be as strong as it was though, so matching their pace was more just trying to keep from getting too far behind. With everyone taking turns up front, they were moving pretty good. I tried to push up to the front at one point again, but people picked it up while I was on my way where I just succumb to trying to pace them rather than pass them. This may have been because we picked up a rider as we rode down into Back Bay, so I was glad to see this rider roll out and go up San Joaquin instead of finishing up to the gate with us.
I was also glad to see there was no sprint finish to the gate, so I made my way up front to lead us over to Jamboree after we passed the gate. On the climb, I was having a little trouble crossing over to the left turn lane and keeping up, but I was glad to roll up to the group who were stopped for the left to PCH.
Once the group got going, they picked it up right away and this was when John joined us. I was off the back and I guess John was waiting for the last guy (me) before joining. I looked back to make sure he was on after I passed (which likely wasn't even necessary) and started to push to catch the group and subsequently take the front. Todd took over after a while and led us into CDM and through the neighborhood. Jeremy charged up the sprinter hill ahead of everyone, so I guess he wanted to a KOM or at least PR it on Strava...he got the latter.
The pace through Ocean was still pretty good, so I kept a little distance behind trying to get more wind time. Once we came out on Poppy, there were cars blocking the right turn, and some opted to hit the sidewalk while others make a right turn from left of the cars. Oh boy...we may need to rethink some of our riding practices for safety's sake. John was 2nd to the last to make the right turn and seemed a little tentative (I don't blame him) and I ended up doing the same thing but waiting after just to give enough gap to get some solo wind time while in pursuit of the group. Pursuing THIS group on a TT bike is definitely not the same as groups on the weekends, and it took a lot just to be able to keep them in sight. We got caught at the 2nd light just outside of downtown CDM, and I let them go ahead again hoping that they wouldn't lose me at a subsequent traffic light. Lucky for me, I was always close enough behind to be able to get through all the lights they did.
As we approached El Morro, I saw that Jeremy and Vin were off the back at this point, so I hoped that they would latch on when I passed and attach back to the group. I wasn't too far behind the lead group from the u-turn, but Jeremy found his own way onto the back of them and I guess Vin wasn't up for it...not even on his new bike, which has yet been able to produce comparable results to when he was on his Cervelo. Just sayin'.
On the reverse route back to PCH, I saw that Vince and Jeremy had pulled over while Vince was inspecting his front tire. He had gotten a flat at that point, so Jeremy opted to stay with him while the rest of continued on. Vince told me afterward that he actually got a 2nd flat, so I guess today was not a good tire day for him. From the looks of his Strava stats though, it looked like he did great on NPC though, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.
As we resumed our ride, I pushed to the front to lead at that point again, but Todd took the front subsequently also. I had just started and was still building momentum, so I ended up taking the front again and leading a good ways before the NPC climb. Todd eventually passed with Adrian in tow and with John taking off to join them just before we rounded the turn to NPC. I came around with Mitchell and Jaffe attached and we made our way up the hill only to be stopped at the first Pelican light after passing a detonated Adrian. Once we resumed, I led originally but both Mitchell and Jaffe were pushing past me and charging up with some good momentum where I wasn't sure I'd even be able to catch them due to the gap they created. It was only near the top as we approached the 2nd Pelican light that I managed to find a rhythm to make my way up to and past them but with them still sticking to me like white on rice. At the top, John and Todd were long gone, so the three of us proceeded on getting caught at 1 more light at the top.
I was leading Jaffe and Mitchell over to the descent where I thought I'd give it a good run down and not expect that they would keep up. However, every time I looked back, they were both there (probably laughing at how slow I was really going). They stayed with me all the way to the bottom as we hit the red left turn light together.
When the light turned green, Adrian came out of nowhere and made the left turn with some momentum passing us without any regard. I was thinking to myself...hmm...I can do that too. While he seemed to back it down just a notch rather than trying to keep the breakaway (it was strategic according to him so he can latch on easily), I made sure to return the favor passed him pretty fast too. Ha Ha. He latched on though and eventually gave me kudos for the pass and the tow.
We hit a couple lights after the 73 underpass, and on one of the lights, Jaffe started to take the front (what a stud), but I passed wanting to just drop the hammer for the last couple miles to the finish. He and Adrian latched on and stayed with me as we made our way onto Bison, and Mitchell had gotten back on at this point as well. I think Jaffe wanted to finish ahead of us though as he started to take off after the first light on the 73, but when I saw it was green, I took off too knowing Adrian was going to try and sprint past me. The 586 watt average I hit for that section successfully prevented him from doing so. BAM!
My legs are definitely toast now, so I'm hoping they recover in time for Sunday. Shannon's going to join me in the race and will be in the same class, so that's one more person who'll be ahead of me in the rankings. You gotta know though that it's not about me as much as it is about the team (for me anyways), so more power to him. Unlike me, I'm sure he trained up right for it given his absence this week.
Kudos to everyone on the ride today for being so fast. Todd and John killed it on NPC, as did Jeremy and Vince after fixing the flats. Thanks for letting me ride with you all!
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