March 27 - Ride South Signiture Ride

Well, I haven't blogged in a while - it is hard to find time to sit down and put my thoughts on paper. I typically email my coach pretty quickly after a ride and should just edit the email and post it.

So, what have been doing since my last post?

March 27th Ride South Signature Ride - My bike came in on Friday in time for it to be put back together for the Recumbent Rally. We had some 40ish recumbents show for one launching or another of this ride. I knew I could not start with the guys doing the 115 mile route as I would be red lining all day long. I decided to do the 80 mile ride (a 40 mile out and back on the rail trail), convincing myself that I could keep my HR below 130. I made arrangements to ride with Beth, a Corsa rider that really has a competitive spirit. So, I failed miserably keeping my HR below 130 :( There were 3 of us doing the 80 mile start that dropped the others in the matter of 1 mile. The two in front of me were in my sight for the first 3 rolling hill miles and I just could not stop myself from catching up with them. I know my HR was too high, but I felt really good. My legs were a little tired to start, but I was glad to be back on the bike. One of the guys and I ended up being very well matched and we rode the whole 40 miles together talking and only drafting off each other when others were coming towards us and we needed to drop to single file. We averaged 16 mph while I was trying to keep my HR below 150. Although my HR seemed high, my PE was lower.

At the turn around the entire group met for lunch and I met up with Beth. She has potential and a lot of fire to keep up and not be dropped. She reminds me of myself several years back, well maybe even just a year back! She wanted to start before the mass start after lunch as she did not want to be the last one in. Since this was the one place everyone would gather, they wanted everyone to stay for pictures and start together. Of course, all of the fast guys had made it, including one of the owners of the company that makes my bike, John Schlitter (first to finish solo RAAM on a bent). So, I went out with the fast guys for 3 or 4 miles at 20+ (26 at a point)mph red lining most of the time! Boy it was fun! I knew I could not keep it up so I turned around and met Beth and her husband Johnny and rode in with her. I had a great time. I did get my HR lower for most of the ride, we had a headwind (if you could call it that) that made us work harder (ha).



John Schlitter, Greg Hammer, and me in Prentiss




Beth and I somewhere on the Longleaf Trace