Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/132307929
It's been a while since I've done Como, but I have a race next weekend with some hills where I figured what better way to prepare for it than this ride. I wasn't sure what kind of turnout there would be given it was Easter morning, but surprisingly there was a good number of riders out there. I saw Jaffe at the Starbucks in his BRCM kit while Vin on Irvine Blvd with the ARB4U crew. I recognized a few others out there but no one I really knew too well. Jaffe's estimation was that there were about 100 riders out, but I think it was more like 80ish.
I was a little tentative in the ride given I had trained on the TT the day before, so I didn't know how my legs were going to feel. It also didn't help that my HR seemed/felt unusually high. Even before getting on the bike, it was already close to 100. During the warm-up, this continued where despite average speeds of under 20 mph, my HR would be hitting close to 130. No bueno. Thus, my MO for a good portion of the ride was just to try and hang on. It didn't help that I didn't have a power meter either.
The pace eventually picked up on Irvine Blvd and although my legs weren't feeling too strong, I was still able to keep pace. I did end up finding myself toward the back of the pack at some point, and I pretty much stayed there all the way to El Toro. I was thinking I would move up closer to the front going up El Toro as I used to do, but I only moved up nominally and just enough to ride among the pack.
Vin and his team broke off to do the long route, but I had only enough time and energy for the short one. It seemed there were a lot of people doing the short route only as well. I think Jaffe mentioned he was doing the short route, but I lost sight of him on Irvine Blvd and never saw him again for the rest of the ride.
Going past Santa Margarita and continuing to climb, I never really moved up too much but did start to worry as the line or riders was pretty long. I didn't want to get behind others who pop off or crash and be split off from the group. Fortunately, that didn't happen. There was some road kill on the bike lane, which could have ended bad, but fortunately everyone saw it on time and avoided it without any incident.
As we got closer to Cook's, I decided I better move up and got on the road to start getting closer to the front. There was a lot of riders arriving at Cook's together, so I knew if I didn't get close enough early it would be bad. As I made my way up, I started seeing some people popping off and the front group basically disintegrate. I start jumping from group to group until I wasn't too far from the leaders. Then, I saw the big guy who used to ride the Aragon bike and has mad power on the flats. Instead of passing him, I figured we were close enough to the top that I would just stay behind him and the guy in the Bike Religion kit on his wheel. He slowed a bit as we got close to the first crest, so I actually made my way around him mostly because I didn't want to break the pace. Then, there were some others who were maneuvering around where I guess I ended up looking to see what people were doing around me. I guess the big guy didn't like that too much since he made his way past me again and told me to keep my eyes forward. Jiminy. I didn't say anything and just kept going, but I wasn't about to argue with someone who I knew would be key to latching on to the front group. After the 2nd crest, that's exactly what ended up happening.
There were a lot of guys in the merged front group where I thought I'd go ahead and exercise some humility and just stay in the back letting others rotate in front of me. I wasn't feeling too great anyway, so I pretty much stayed there the whole time. I may have to do this next week, so exercising humility is definitely a part of the training program. There were some surges where even staying in the back of the pack was challenging. As some people would rotate in, not just in front of me but in front of the 1-2 guys ahead of me, I would find myself having to sprint just to latch back on. I was also trying to make sure that the others guys ahead of me didn't just drop off and block me from being able to stay with the front group.
When we finally got to Dump, there was some more disintegrating there but I managed to stay with the front group all the way to the crest. I was losing some steam, but as someone would pass me, I would just jump on his wheel to stay connected.
I thought there was going to be a mad sprint to Jamboree, but there were still a lot of guys where I opted to be safe and not swing out and cause any crashes while trying to challenge for the sprint.
When we got on Jamboree, the big guy had started to break away and I was toward the back just watching and wondering why no one gave chase or try and close the gap. I ended up swinging around and doing the chasing making my way up to and past him on the climb. Others had seen that as an opportunity to go and latched on to me on the ascent. I was relieved close to the top, and the following descent toward Portola was just a mad free for all. I would try to push up, but others kept speeding up as I tried. Cool.
After Portola, I expected there would be a section on Jamboree that people usually sprinted, so I lurked in the background waiting for someone to take off. The big guy was still with us, so I knew he was going to give it a go as is usually the case when I'd see him. When I saw him swing out from the #4 spot and start hammering it, I figured it was time to test out my sprint too. He gapped everyone right away, and no one seemed to respond, so I gave chase on my own. I was able to reel him in and pass him, and set a PR on that section doing so. I did keep looking forward as I passed him though. Hee hee. After doing so, I figured that was good enough and checked up. Two guys passed me at that point, but I had gotten to do what I was hoping to by testing out what I could do in a sprint. The big guy does go to the GP crits and races in a higher class, so I was content in knowing I could challenge him in that regard.
22.4 mph average for the route doesn't seem to fast, but considering the first 3-4 miles were sub 20 average...it was probably one of my faster times out at Como. Good deal.
It's been a while since I've done Como, but I have a race next weekend with some hills where I figured what better way to prepare for it than this ride. I wasn't sure what kind of turnout there would be given it was Easter morning, but surprisingly there was a good number of riders out there. I saw Jaffe at the Starbucks in his BRCM kit while Vin on Irvine Blvd with the ARB4U crew. I recognized a few others out there but no one I really knew too well. Jaffe's estimation was that there were about 100 riders out, but I think it was more like 80ish.
I was a little tentative in the ride given I had trained on the TT the day before, so I didn't know how my legs were going to feel. It also didn't help that my HR seemed/felt unusually high. Even before getting on the bike, it was already close to 100. During the warm-up, this continued where despite average speeds of under 20 mph, my HR would be hitting close to 130. No bueno. Thus, my MO for a good portion of the ride was just to try and hang on. It didn't help that I didn't have a power meter either.
The pace eventually picked up on Irvine Blvd and although my legs weren't feeling too strong, I was still able to keep pace. I did end up finding myself toward the back of the pack at some point, and I pretty much stayed there all the way to El Toro. I was thinking I would move up closer to the front going up El Toro as I used to do, but I only moved up nominally and just enough to ride among the pack.
Vin and his team broke off to do the long route, but I had only enough time and energy for the short one. It seemed there were a lot of people doing the short route only as well. I think Jaffe mentioned he was doing the short route, but I lost sight of him on Irvine Blvd and never saw him again for the rest of the ride.
Going past Santa Margarita and continuing to climb, I never really moved up too much but did start to worry as the line or riders was pretty long. I didn't want to get behind others who pop off or crash and be split off from the group. Fortunately, that didn't happen. There was some road kill on the bike lane, which could have ended bad, but fortunately everyone saw it on time and avoided it without any incident.
As we got closer to Cook's, I decided I better move up and got on the road to start getting closer to the front. There was a lot of riders arriving at Cook's together, so I knew if I didn't get close enough early it would be bad. As I made my way up, I started seeing some people popping off and the front group basically disintegrate. I start jumping from group to group until I wasn't too far from the leaders. Then, I saw the big guy who used to ride the Aragon bike and has mad power on the flats. Instead of passing him, I figured we were close enough to the top that I would just stay behind him and the guy in the Bike Religion kit on his wheel. He slowed a bit as we got close to the first crest, so I actually made my way around him mostly because I didn't want to break the pace. Then, there were some others who were maneuvering around where I guess I ended up looking to see what people were doing around me. I guess the big guy didn't like that too much since he made his way past me again and told me to keep my eyes forward. Jiminy. I didn't say anything and just kept going, but I wasn't about to argue with someone who I knew would be key to latching on to the front group. After the 2nd crest, that's exactly what ended up happening.
There were a lot of guys in the merged front group where I thought I'd go ahead and exercise some humility and just stay in the back letting others rotate in front of me. I wasn't feeling too great anyway, so I pretty much stayed there the whole time. I may have to do this next week, so exercising humility is definitely a part of the training program. There were some surges where even staying in the back of the pack was challenging. As some people would rotate in, not just in front of me but in front of the 1-2 guys ahead of me, I would find myself having to sprint just to latch back on. I was also trying to make sure that the others guys ahead of me didn't just drop off and block me from being able to stay with the front group.
When we finally got to Dump, there was some more disintegrating there but I managed to stay with the front group all the way to the crest. I was losing some steam, but as someone would pass me, I would just jump on his wheel to stay connected.
I thought there was going to be a mad sprint to Jamboree, but there were still a lot of guys where I opted to be safe and not swing out and cause any crashes while trying to challenge for the sprint.
When we got on Jamboree, the big guy had started to break away and I was toward the back just watching and wondering why no one gave chase or try and close the gap. I ended up swinging around and doing the chasing making my way up to and past him on the climb. Others had seen that as an opportunity to go and latched on to me on the ascent. I was relieved close to the top, and the following descent toward Portola was just a mad free for all. I would try to push up, but others kept speeding up as I tried. Cool.
After Portola, I expected there would be a section on Jamboree that people usually sprinted, so I lurked in the background waiting for someone to take off. The big guy was still with us, so I knew he was going to give it a go as is usually the case when I'd see him. When I saw him swing out from the #4 spot and start hammering it, I figured it was time to test out my sprint too. He gapped everyone right away, and no one seemed to respond, so I gave chase on my own. I was able to reel him in and pass him, and set a PR on that section doing so. I did keep looking forward as I passed him though. Hee hee. After doing so, I figured that was good enough and checked up. Two guys passed me at that point, but I had gotten to do what I was hoping to by testing out what I could do in a sprint. The big guy does go to the GP crits and races in a higher class, so I was content in knowing I could challenge him in that regard.
22.4 mph average for the route doesn't seem to fast, but considering the first 3-4 miles were sub 20 average...it was probably one of my faster times out at Como. Good deal.
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