Last year after a really fast summer ride my 60-something butt ended up in a hospital for four days until they finally shocked me with the paddles and booted me out. So far this year so good, but how long will my luck hold out?
At the end of this 170 miles of riding, I had done a moderate effort at 20 miles starting a bit after 6am and was in the mood for more. I am supposed to be doing polarized training so putting in some high-effort time would not be a bad way to finish up the week. I had got a bit of fast riding in earlier in the week, but more would be better.
It was supposed to be 80-degrees F by 8:30am, and over 90 by lunch, and it was humid too as it had rained a bit and wet the ground the night before. and just then I saw two guys on what looked like TT bikes come down the road the other way and they were slowing hard to make a turn-around that would put them behind me going in the same direction. I was probably going about 18 or 19mph, which is pretty easy for me on my single-speed road bike with tall gearing of about 1:3.3, but by 20mph I am pedaling 75rpm, and I have not been comfortable above that cadence this year for longer distances. So of course the guys on the TT bikes caught up and went by, one on a new Canyon Speedmax, the other on a Quitana-roo. They would have fit right into the tt at the TDF, helmets and all. So of course I lost control and sped up and I wondered if I could catch up and ride in their draft for a bit, and with some effort I caught the second guy in the two-man paceline and was able to slow down to their speed, which was probably about 22mph. The guy in front of me had huge thighs, they looked like they were about 30 years old give or take. So off like rockets we went, me with nothing aero but maybe a riding position, and they looking like UFOs.
I noticed the guy in front of me, the one on the Quintana, was letting gaps open up between him and Mr. Speedmax that seemed quite too far to maintain a good draft, I figured the guy in front was the faster rider, or maybe they had already done some miles with Quintana doing the pulling and he was now spent. After about five miles Quintana slowed considerably and started shoving something in his mouth, surely some sort of energy gel or something similar, and Speedmax was getting further and further away, so I passed Quintana and tried reeling in Speedmax, which I did, and yes he was cooking along surely at 22mph, maybe 23+. Speedmax looked back and did not seem to like that some goofy guy on a crap bike was behind him and he stepped on the gas hard. I think at about 25mph I gave up, which would have been a cadence of 95, and slowed way down and off Speedmax went. Eventually Quintana caught back up to me and went by, but I guessed he had burned a match doing so, and although he went up ahead some tens of yards, he slowed and I got on his butt again, then he hit the gas again and pulled ahead, then slowed and came back again, this time for good. We started to reel in Speedmax too, as he surely burned a match dropping me and speeding off into the distance, but now a dozen miles had gone by and Speedmax turned into a parking area up ahead and Quintana and I did too a bit later. So we were coasting along to their truck and I talked to Quintana, he was nice and I thanked him for the pull. He said he and Speedmax were from out of town and stopped by to check out this route that was local to me that is very popular with fast road cyclists, and they were practicing for a triathlon in Ottawa, Canada the next weekend. They started to load up their bikes and I idled off as I had some ways to go to get home, and it was getting hotter by the minute. I stopped at a public rest area and drank some water in the shade and got an apple out of my messenger-bag and got back on the bike and slowly went towards home. I was hot and tired, I chewed pieces of the apple I bit off and some of them I swallowed, some I just spit back out after the sugar and water was crushed out. I started thinking of last year's fast ride that put me in the hospital, but I decided to forget about it, be happy about the fast ride with the youngsters on their race bikes, and just believe everything was fine. I walked the bike up a big hill, got back on it and got into town and decided to stop at a cafe that did juicing, I walked in and looked at what they had in a cold-case and there was a drink they made out of orange, apple and aloe. I grabbed it and started to drink it while I was standing in line to get to the cashier, and when I got up to the register I was informed that the smallish bottle of juice I had just drank two-thirds of was $9.27 !!! But it made me feel good to know I got something inside me with some sort of electrolytes.
Then I just rode the few miles back home, went the bathroom, drank some water and ate some more and went to bed. Eventually throughout the day I recovered and felt fine by evening. I got away with it, but I think in the future I will try to have more self-control and keep it throttled back more, even on the hard training days.
At the end of this 170 miles of riding, I had done a moderate effort at 20 miles starting a bit after 6am and was in the mood for more. I am supposed to be doing polarized training so putting in some high-effort time would not be a bad way to finish up the week. I had got a bit of fast riding in earlier in the week, but more would be better.
It was supposed to be 80-degrees F by 8:30am, and over 90 by lunch, and it was humid too as it had rained a bit and wet the ground the night before. and just then I saw two guys on what looked like TT bikes come down the road the other way and they were slowing hard to make a turn-around that would put them behind me going in the same direction. I was probably going about 18 or 19mph, which is pretty easy for me on my single-speed road bike with tall gearing of about 1:3.3, but by 20mph I am pedaling 75rpm, and I have not been comfortable above that cadence this year for longer distances. So of course the guys on the TT bikes caught up and went by, one on a new Canyon Speedmax, the other on a Quitana-roo. They would have fit right into the tt at the TDF, helmets and all. So of course I lost control and sped up and I wondered if I could catch up and ride in their draft for a bit, and with some effort I caught the second guy in the two-man paceline and was able to slow down to their speed, which was probably about 22mph. The guy in front of me had huge thighs, they looked like they were about 30 years old give or take. So off like rockets we went, me with nothing aero but maybe a riding position, and they looking like UFOs.
I noticed the guy in front of me, the one on the Quintana, was letting gaps open up between him and Mr. Speedmax that seemed quite too far to maintain a good draft, I figured the guy in front was the faster rider, or maybe they had already done some miles with Quintana doing the pulling and he was now spent. After about five miles Quintana slowed considerably and started shoving something in his mouth, surely some sort of energy gel or something similar, and Speedmax was getting further and further away, so I passed Quintana and tried reeling in Speedmax, which I did, and yes he was cooking along surely at 22mph, maybe 23+. Speedmax looked back and did not seem to like that some goofy guy on a crap bike was behind him and he stepped on the gas hard. I think at about 25mph I gave up, which would have been a cadence of 95, and slowed way down and off Speedmax went. Eventually Quintana caught back up to me and went by, but I guessed he had burned a match doing so, and although he went up ahead some tens of yards, he slowed and I got on his butt again, then he hit the gas again and pulled ahead, then slowed and came back again, this time for good. We started to reel in Speedmax too, as he surely burned a match dropping me and speeding off into the distance, but now a dozen miles had gone by and Speedmax turned into a parking area up ahead and Quintana and I did too a bit later. So we were coasting along to their truck and I talked to Quintana, he was nice and I thanked him for the pull. He said he and Speedmax were from out of town and stopped by to check out this route that was local to me that is very popular with fast road cyclists, and they were practicing for a triathlon in Ottawa, Canada the next weekend. They started to load up their bikes and I idled off as I had some ways to go to get home, and it was getting hotter by the minute. I stopped at a public rest area and drank some water in the shade and got an apple out of my messenger-bag and got back on the bike and slowly went towards home. I was hot and tired, I chewed pieces of the apple I bit off and some of them I swallowed, some I just spit back out after the sugar and water was crushed out. I started thinking of last year's fast ride that put me in the hospital, but I decided to forget about it, be happy about the fast ride with the youngsters on their race bikes, and just believe everything was fine. I walked the bike up a big hill, got back on it and got into town and decided to stop at a cafe that did juicing, I walked in and looked at what they had in a cold-case and there was a drink they made out of orange, apple and aloe. I grabbed it and started to drink it while I was standing in line to get to the cashier, and when I got up to the register I was informed that the smallish bottle of juice I had just drank two-thirds of was $9.27 !!! But it made me feel good to know I got something inside me with some sort of electrolytes.
Then I just rode the few miles back home, went the bathroom, drank some water and ate some more and went to bed. Eventually throughout the day I recovered and felt fine by evening. I got away with it, but I think in the future I will try to have more self-control and keep it throttled back more, even on the hard training days.
