Strava: https://app.strava.com/activities/256345851
Today's inspiration:
When I wrote my blog on Thursday, I received a good number of responses from people I hadn't heard from in a while who expressed interest in re-joining our lunch rides. It worked! HA. Much to our delight, both Jaffe and Mitchell came out today joining Shannon, Seon and me. We may have even gotten more people to come out had I not started the ride earlier than usual, but I'll take it! I'm excited to see if the others who replied to me will keep their word (wink wink).
Jaffe, who likes to have his name mentioned on the blog in any way shape or form, had been off for a while due to a back injury he suffered from riding. After some strength training, a much needed bike re-fitting, and foregoing his fear of not being able to keep up, I'm glad he's returned although we always have to be careful what we wish for, right? Just kidding, Jaffe (note I said your name again). If anything, our rides should once again be interesting, but we may just have to be a little more careful to boot. Surprisingly, he rode today just as if he hadn't had any time off at all. He was pushing up to the front, keeping up almost throughout, and just riding like he'd been doing so all along. That must have been a great bike fitting! Kudos to "Jaffe" and we can excuse the black jersey this time.
Mitchell, my wingman, who had been on a vegetarian diet for the last couple months too undernourished to ride with us, was also back out in full effect. He must have eaten a big ass steak or something last night, because he was also out there pushing the pace, working the rotations, and actually almost impossible to drop (only by Shannon on Ridgeline just before the 2nd rise). Hell, I dropped off a couple few times myself (which doesn't say much nowadays). Impressive!
Despite the Shannon-inspired pace on the bike trail, Seon was doing really well also. After I pulled the first time, I rolled off and headed to the back where I saw Seon seemingly off the draft. When I pointed to my rear wheel for him to latch on, he instead sprinted past me and latched on to the guys ahead who had gapped us. I was not as lucky and had to fend for myself. I'm glad the road crossings allowed me to rejoin the group, but I was definitely not in a position to rejoin the front rotation for the rest of the bike trail. Ummm...thanks, Seon. Just kidding. It's all good.
Not wanting to point out the obvious but Shannon once again was in good form. He was definitely doing a bulk of the work on the bike trails, but he also seemed to be managing the pace somewhat and not stringing us all out or worse, leaving us to fend for ourselves. Then again, maybe the Starcrest repeats he did yesterday had a little bit to do with it. Probably not. As expected, he was able to bust Mitchell and I off on Ridgeline and me on Culver subsequently. When he fell back after the light on Shady, I started to work with Mitchell just as a way to counter him ultimately passing us. Fortunately, that didn't happen and we all regrouped at McArthur. Due to time, we opted to skip the condo and see what we could do to setup Shannon for a lead out on Bison. Mitchell seemed reluctant at first, but when he took off after the light before the 73, I had to work just to catch and pass him for the final lead out. Shannon came around pretty effortlessly after, so the boy's definitely stronger than I've ever seen him in this capacity. Way to go!
Thanks for coming out! Now I can't wait until Thursday!
Today's inspiration:
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| Paul Colf (teammate's dad) - Read more here. |
When I wrote my blog on Thursday, I received a good number of responses from people I hadn't heard from in a while who expressed interest in re-joining our lunch rides. It worked! HA. Much to our delight, both Jaffe and Mitchell came out today joining Shannon, Seon and me. We may have even gotten more people to come out had I not started the ride earlier than usual, but I'll take it! I'm excited to see if the others who replied to me will keep their word (wink wink).
Jaffe, who likes to have his name mentioned on the blog in any way shape or form, had been off for a while due to a back injury he suffered from riding. After some strength training, a much needed bike re-fitting, and foregoing his fear of not being able to keep up, I'm glad he's returned although we always have to be careful what we wish for, right? Just kidding, Jaffe (note I said your name again). If anything, our rides should once again be interesting, but we may just have to be a little more careful to boot. Surprisingly, he rode today just as if he hadn't had any time off at all. He was pushing up to the front, keeping up almost throughout, and just riding like he'd been doing so all along. That must have been a great bike fitting! Kudos to "Jaffe" and we can excuse the black jersey this time.
Mitchell, my wingman, who had been on a vegetarian diet for the last couple months too undernourished to ride with us, was also back out in full effect. He must have eaten a big ass steak or something last night, because he was also out there pushing the pace, working the rotations, and actually almost impossible to drop (only by Shannon on Ridgeline just before the 2nd rise). Hell, I dropped off a couple few times myself (which doesn't say much nowadays). Impressive!
Despite the Shannon-inspired pace on the bike trail, Seon was doing really well also. After I pulled the first time, I rolled off and headed to the back where I saw Seon seemingly off the draft. When I pointed to my rear wheel for him to latch on, he instead sprinted past me and latched on to the guys ahead who had gapped us. I was not as lucky and had to fend for myself. I'm glad the road crossings allowed me to rejoin the group, but I was definitely not in a position to rejoin the front rotation for the rest of the bike trail. Ummm...thanks, Seon. Just kidding. It's all good.
Not wanting to point out the obvious but Shannon once again was in good form. He was definitely doing a bulk of the work on the bike trails, but he also seemed to be managing the pace somewhat and not stringing us all out or worse, leaving us to fend for ourselves. Then again, maybe the Starcrest repeats he did yesterday had a little bit to do with it. Probably not. As expected, he was able to bust Mitchell and I off on Ridgeline and me on Culver subsequently. When he fell back after the light on Shady, I started to work with Mitchell just as a way to counter him ultimately passing us. Fortunately, that didn't happen and we all regrouped at McArthur. Due to time, we opted to skip the condo and see what we could do to setup Shannon for a lead out on Bison. Mitchell seemed reluctant at first, but when he took off after the light before the 73, I had to work just to catch and pass him for the final lead out. Shannon came around pretty effortlessly after, so the boy's definitely stronger than I've ever seen him in this capacity. Way to go!
Thanks for coming out! Now I can't wait until Thursday!
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