How bad did it hurt?

True, suffering has reality in it.
Who denies it?
But the transcendence of suffering
Also has reality in it.
Who can disbelieve it?

~Sri Chinmoy

This pretty much describes last Thursday's ride. I've felt a lot worse many times before, but its when you know you can go but your body just won't cooperate with the desire to do so that the suffering becomes more than just physical.


Eddie Hudspeth joined our Thursday group ride and he is always a welcome sight on our rides. It means we have someone there that can hand our asses to us if we get too froggy, but most importantly it means that we have someone that will help us get better in every aspect of cycling. He always encourages us to work together as a whole to push ourselves to the limits. I listen to him and put his knowledge to good use. Sometimes people can't meet the challenge of these hard rides, but that is not Eddie's fault. Riders have bad days or just can't hang at the pace we want to go when a faster rider is amongst the group. No excuses. You just have to push if you desire to get better on our "training pace" rides.


I felt pretty good at the start but the legs just wouldn't get me where I needed to be. I was pushing way too hard to maintain the pace we were doing the entire ride. Not that it was any faster than most rides. It was just a mediocre day on the bike for me, and the wrong day for it to happen. HR was through the roof. Legs ached like fire ants were devouring them and my bones felt as if they were composed of rubber. I was in my own personal sufferfest and Eddie was the only one that recognized it. I guess my poker face didn't fool a veteran racer. My body was telling the tale long before Eddie told James D. that he knew I was working way too hard today. Back-bone swaying like a Willow tree in the breeze. Tension reined in my shoulders, arms, and grip on the bike. Calves were tense the entire pedal stroke. Jaw locked down and open trying to scoop more air to feed a desperate engine. No, I wasn't relaxed at all and all I felt was pure misery. But you can't give in............ever.


The good that came from this was proved in Eddie's topic of discussion at the beginning of our ride: "a racer must have a the desire to push beyond the pain, his limits, and sometimes good judgement to be better." Not that I'm a racer, but I have the desire to get better, faster, and stronger. Nearing 40 years, I know my limits aren't far off from where I'm already. I'm also a bit on the ignorant side to give up on the ride and go easy. I've done rides where I've dropped to the back where no-one can see me hurl, sprint to get back on the draft, and do it again the next rotation. I can rest when the ride is done. One thing this last ride told me is that the plateau I'm at as far as ability is nearing the end and I should make a small step up in strength and speed the next few weeks. We'll see what happens.

Back to normal

Things are getting back to normal after the BAF fiasco. Or at least as normal as things get around here. The temps are up to the mid-80s, the pollen counts are getting up there as well, and we're starting to see an occasional thunderstorm every other week. All signal that spring is full throttle and summer is looming like a fire breathing dragon waiting to pounce.

I've been working to get my leg speed and power back since my so-called training for the BAF meant long steady miles with very few excursions into my heart rate "red zone." It will take a while since my body responds better to building strength first with leg speed a distant second. Around 90-95 cadence is optimal for me to remain comfortably breathing without going beyond my lactate threshold for most rides. Right now I'm stuck at these variables seen when I'm at the front of our group rides pulling with flat terrain: 25 mph for 10-15 minutes, 174-180 HR, and 90-95 cadence. The speed is not the critical thing here, but the HR and time spent at this exertion level is. I use those two as the gauge of how fit I am, and right now I'm no where close to where I want or need to be.

The last few rides have been enjoyable since the weather has been fantastic and there has been a very balanced group doing the A route on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I was worried since the number of riders in the A group had actually fallen to about 3-4 a month ago, but it has picked up of late. Last night's total ride numbers was impressive to say the least with around 20 folks starting and about 9 making the cut to stay in the A group once we reached the second Powersville hill. My legs took forever to finally come around, but I started feeling good about 15 miles into the ride.

I can't express how nice it is to have a group that works well together and takes a turn at the front. No one was shirking responsibility last night and there was only a few times that people had to drop back to rest a bit instead of taking a turn on the front. They did it right, however, by pulling out of the line and falling back instead of rolling off the front without pulling at all. We did the extra loops adding two more climbs into the route and re-grouped each time to keep the pack together. I turned off once we reached Lake View road and headed back through Powersville to go to Kat's house to meet Diana. I finished the ride with averages of 20.6 mph and 154 HR for 42 miles.

Another great ride in central Georgia.