This post'll be really quick. I negotiated with the always-kind Heather who granted me until 1:30pm to ride 62 miles. Marc and I rode 75 and I got off the bike at 1:24pm. Luckily, Aves saved the day (well, my day) because she was napping. Got home at 1:35pm. All is well.
Thanks to Marc for the invite. Been needing to get back into some group rides to tweak the upper end of the heart rate zones. And build some muscles.
Saw Michelle and John. Marc and I planned on doing 62 but Marc realized very few others were so we opted for 75 with a group. Good call. Decent average speed.
Body felt good until 68 miles when my handlebars popped down/almost off on a fast descent and holey road. Then the new position was a bit miserable. But made it back with the group. When it happened I had to choose whether to bunny hop and land in more potholes or just ride it out. I rode it out but the aerobars dove way forward. For the next couple hundred yards of the descent I was my own mini version of Hincapie when his bars broke. Never really completely out of control but definitely a hairy moment that required some quick adjusting to my brakes being about eight inches lower than they had been previously.
Met two triathletes who're doing IM Arizona next year. We chatted for a while and I realized they had some really good questions. As the group was leaving they asked my name and recognized it from the blog. Yay joereger.com. I hope they shoot me a quick message... would like to see how their training progresses.
Group steadily dropped people off the back. I think we ended with 10-12 people. Marc sprinted it out and would have won it if he knew where the actual sprint line was. Details. Marc's still mega strong.
I'm very happy with the day. My performance wasn't stellar but I was able to hang and I haven't really done much group riding in months. So much more fun than steady state stuff. Heart rate at 180bpm? Rock on.
Avg hr: 147bpm Avg sp: 19.9mph (damn, couldn't pull the deuce, could we?) Total ascent: 5589 ft (although motionbased.com reports 7333 ft... what up?)
Had to bolt quickly after the ride. Have to bolt now to head out to VR for some excellent fam time. Yay fam! Thanks for letting me play this morning.
Update: It was Reg and Kebby that I met... they're gearing up for Reg's first and Kebby's seconds Ironman effort at Arizona. Great to meet you guys!
Heading to Doc with Terp