In The Bank

Well if April's training was a disaster and I really needed to have a solid May then I'm off to a good start. I don't want to jinx things but so far I've been healthy and my body seems to be reacting to the training well. That's not to say I'm not tired or sore, there is plenty of that, but it's nice not to feel sick all the time. Saturday was only my 2nd ride outside for the year and it was a BIG one, we planned on doing the Rycroft-Wanham-Bezanson-GP loop which is about 174k. I think at the beginning we were all planning on doing another 6k around the lake but by the time we got back home we were all so wasted- there was no more riding or running, no way. We also planned on a 5k run but the first long ride of the year and you have to expect that it's going to take a lot more out of you than usual.

Things started out rough, 5k in and I got a flat, another 5k later Geoff got a flat but fortunately that was it for the day. We took it easy out to Rycroft, it's a nice somewhat downhill ride for about 67k and we were all using each other well drafting in the crosswinds. A quick refuel of the water bottles and we were off again, another 23k with a massive tailwind was a lot of fun but I kept thinking how much I was going to pay for it later in the ride. The road out of Wanham is very isolated and we didn't see much traffic which we were thankful for because with the crosswind coming from the west we were lined up diagonally across the road to stay in the draft. At about 100k we hit the hills and the day started to heat up, we started off with arm and leg warmers but by this point it was getting hot out.

As soon as we started climbing it was obvious I didn't have the climbing legs I normally have and I guess that was to be expected, I've done very little climbing in the past few months just focusing on endurance building. I was hanging on at the back of the group and started to go cross-eyed, I had my front wheel straddling Robert's back wheel and the next thing I know I'm rubbing against his wheel. Ooops, I rode into the ditch and managed to stay upright but Robert looked back fearing the worst. I was okay just a little embarrassed- I pulled myself out of the ditch and latched on to the group again and managed to get through the hills with a little energy left. A Roctane gel help revive me and I was feeling okay once again for the next 40k until we hit Bezanson. I think everyone was secretly dreading the tough slough back from Bezanson because we all knew it was a 25km stretch that was going to take an hour in the wind.

We started off okay, each one of us was taking turns pulling at the front for a couple minutes and with 4 of us it was nice to have a break. However in the heat it became apparent that everyone was hurting badly, at one point I was leading with about 13k to go and I looked back and the other guys were gone. I said to myself that I could soft pedal until they caught up but Robert told me earlier to go ahead that he was cramping badly and was just going to soft pedal slowly into town. So with only a short ride left I gathered all the energy I could to finish things off in a terrible headwind and managed to get in 175k in 5:22, I'll take it for the first long ride of the year. It's obvious I need to concentrate on my climbing in the coming weeks but I have time to improve on that. Put that ride in the bank and I'll be looking forward to a couple more big deposits in the next few weeks.