Strava: https://app.strava.com/activities/294392788
Attendees: Shannon, Vince, Todd, Mitchell, Jaffe, Seon and me
Admittedly, I was a little concerned about riding with the guys today. I really wanted to take it easy given my hamstring was bugging me after my less-than-stellar run yesterday during lunch. I also broke out in some sort of mysterious hives after my run where I was worried it may recur if I pushed too hard during today's ride. Unexpectedly, no one gave me crap about my plan to take it easy and what's cool was how Shannon also was planning to pull back some given he was starting to feel the effects of his BWR outing from a couple days ago. Given this, I felt I was in the clear as far as if I opted to sit in the back for the length of the ride until I couldn't keep up any longer.
Curiously, after a slight warm-up on a stationary bike before the ride, my legs didn't seem to bother me while I pedaled. Now I could have still taken it easy at this point and stayed in the back, but with a solid group of riders making it out, I opted to get in the rotations and do my share to help the team maintain a good pace. And a good pace we did....
Shannon led going down California, but Todd assumed the lead once we got on the bike trail. The team rode very smoothly despite maintaining a good pace. Just about everyone was pushing up to the front and taking turns even as we rode down onto Back Bay. From my perspective, I thought we looked pretty bad ass...despite wearing different colored jerseys. HA HA. Now I didn't think there were any hold outs that were occurring like you'd normally see, although some pulls were a little shorter than others...but at least people were pushing up. Great teamwork to get ~25 mph average through Back Bay.
When we got on PCH, there was still a good amount of rotating but the typical workhorses stood out as usual. We lost Seon after we got on PCH, but we managed to regroup with him after we got out of CDM and back on the PCH stretch heading toward NPC. We were definitely moving throughout and it was great to see the team still working together and looking strong.
Once we turned around to head back toward NPC, there was definitely less teamwork. HA HA. This is where everyone started to prepare for the upcoming climb and aren't as willing to burn up energy. Todd, Shannon and Vince...not so much. Vince tried a little breakaway up one of the climbs, but got pulled back into the group just before the climb.
I was feeling pretty good despite the pace and led everyone onto NPC to start the climb. It wasn't long before Todd passed me with Mitchell in tow. When Shannon passed, I decided I was going to try and keep pace with him with "try" being the operative word. He probably took it easy knowing he was towing me behind him but did break me off just near the higher Pelican opting to leave the rest of us behind.
After a regroup at the top minus Shannon, we continued on with Todd still willing to provide the draft. We were going to go down NPC, but I thought we opted to go down San Joaquin before we left so we made the turn rather than going straight.
On San Joaquin, we were moving at a pretty good clip to the pea and more so as we made our way down the hill. Vince took off ahead at that point and had gapped some of us but not by too much. As we approached Spyglass, our light started to turn yellow and I immediately called out my plan to stop. Now, this was a situation where I don't think anyone could do anything wrong because several factors come into play: 1) we were moving between 40-45 mph at the time 2) everyone's bike and braking ability differs 3) reaction times differ. Given this, Vince going through was understandable, Todd and Vin stopping was appropriate given they were able to do so without going into the intersection, and Steve and Mitchell having to turn right due up on Spyglass was also appropriate. I wanted to point this out in case anyone wondered what my thoughts were on this. The one thing that I don't know if anyone noticed was the guy in a beefy sports car who took off from Spyglass once his light turned green. I'm really glad none of us ended up being in front of him.
As we made our way onto McArthur, Todd and Mitchell had gotten ahead of us due to a car being behind them on the turn. As I worked to close the gap after the light and called out to have them join me, I guess Mitchell had experienced yet another tire blow out at the time and caused them to get separated. I didn't hear it and kept on going only to have Todd let me know later on what happened. Again, considering the speed and how that road can be full of debris, I'm glad everyone was okay.
Despite the warm weather, the ride ended up being a good team workout in my opinion. There's something to be said when the guys you ride with start to get in sync much like how women friends sometimes have their mensies sync. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but the point is that we're beginning to ride more like a team again and I'm diggin' it.
Thanks for coming out, gents.
Attendees: Shannon, Vince, Todd, Mitchell, Jaffe, Seon and me
Admittedly, I was a little concerned about riding with the guys today. I really wanted to take it easy given my hamstring was bugging me after my less-than-stellar run yesterday during lunch. I also broke out in some sort of mysterious hives after my run where I was worried it may recur if I pushed too hard during today's ride. Unexpectedly, no one gave me crap about my plan to take it easy and what's cool was how Shannon also was planning to pull back some given he was starting to feel the effects of his BWR outing from a couple days ago. Given this, I felt I was in the clear as far as if I opted to sit in the back for the length of the ride until I couldn't keep up any longer.
Curiously, after a slight warm-up on a stationary bike before the ride, my legs didn't seem to bother me while I pedaled. Now I could have still taken it easy at this point and stayed in the back, but with a solid group of riders making it out, I opted to get in the rotations and do my share to help the team maintain a good pace. And a good pace we did....
Shannon led going down California, but Todd assumed the lead once we got on the bike trail. The team rode very smoothly despite maintaining a good pace. Just about everyone was pushing up to the front and taking turns even as we rode down onto Back Bay. From my perspective, I thought we looked pretty bad ass...despite wearing different colored jerseys. HA HA. Now I didn't think there were any hold outs that were occurring like you'd normally see, although some pulls were a little shorter than others...but at least people were pushing up. Great teamwork to get ~25 mph average through Back Bay.
When we got on PCH, there was still a good amount of rotating but the typical workhorses stood out as usual. We lost Seon after we got on PCH, but we managed to regroup with him after we got out of CDM and back on the PCH stretch heading toward NPC. We were definitely moving throughout and it was great to see the team still working together and looking strong.
Once we turned around to head back toward NPC, there was definitely less teamwork. HA HA. This is where everyone started to prepare for the upcoming climb and aren't as willing to burn up energy. Todd, Shannon and Vince...not so much. Vince tried a little breakaway up one of the climbs, but got pulled back into the group just before the climb.
I was feeling pretty good despite the pace and led everyone onto NPC to start the climb. It wasn't long before Todd passed me with Mitchell in tow. When Shannon passed, I decided I was going to try and keep pace with him with "try" being the operative word. He probably took it easy knowing he was towing me behind him but did break me off just near the higher Pelican opting to leave the rest of us behind.
After a regroup at the top minus Shannon, we continued on with Todd still willing to provide the draft. We were going to go down NPC, but I thought we opted to go down San Joaquin before we left so we made the turn rather than going straight.
On San Joaquin, we were moving at a pretty good clip to the pea and more so as we made our way down the hill. Vince took off ahead at that point and had gapped some of us but not by too much. As we approached Spyglass, our light started to turn yellow and I immediately called out my plan to stop. Now, this was a situation where I don't think anyone could do anything wrong because several factors come into play: 1) we were moving between 40-45 mph at the time 2) everyone's bike and braking ability differs 3) reaction times differ. Given this, Vince going through was understandable, Todd and Vin stopping was appropriate given they were able to do so without going into the intersection, and Steve and Mitchell having to turn right due up on Spyglass was also appropriate. I wanted to point this out in case anyone wondered what my thoughts were on this. The one thing that I don't know if anyone noticed was the guy in a beefy sports car who took off from Spyglass once his light turned green. I'm really glad none of us ended up being in front of him.
As we made our way onto McArthur, Todd and Mitchell had gotten ahead of us due to a car being behind them on the turn. As I worked to close the gap after the light and called out to have them join me, I guess Mitchell had experienced yet another tire blow out at the time and caused them to get separated. I didn't hear it and kept on going only to have Todd let me know later on what happened. Again, considering the speed and how that road can be full of debris, I'm glad everyone was okay.
Despite the warm weather, the ride ended up being a good team workout in my opinion. There's something to be said when the guys you ride with start to get in sync much like how women friends sometimes have their mensies sync. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but the point is that we're beginning to ride more like a team again and I'm diggin' it.
Thanks for coming out, gents.
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