TNPT Strikes Back...

...or tried to anyway.

Once again it's time for the recap of the Tuesday night hurt-fest. I was feeling pretty good before the ride started tonight. The previous few rides I had done, along with the past few TNPT's had me feeling pretty confident of my ability to throw it down along with the main protagonists tonight. It turned out to be a night of going deep and long.

Nearing Ruffner Rd, DirtDog came along side me and asked me to go to the front with him to slow the pace a little on the initial climb near the ballfields. Doing this ensures that some of the newer riders don't get shelled on the first climb, and have the descent to work their way up to speed.

Sprinting up to the front, I happened to notice my HR monitor. That can't be right, I thought, as the digits were displaying 182 bpm. That's really high for me, near max HR, and certainly not commesurate with the effort being made. My legs weren't hurting, so I didn't think about it again until later on down Ruffner, I noticed once again that I was running in the high 170's, but felt fine.

On John Rogers Drive, I grabbed a wheel on the steep part of the climb and soon found myself climbing the steeper section at 22mph. With a HR of 189! At this point my legs had started to ache a bit, so I backed off, still with about 100 yards on the main group to recover for the flatter top half of JRD. It worked out fine, and I made it over the top in the front group, but still, HR in the 170's and 180's.

On Old Leeds Road, there were a couple of points at which I had to make a decision as to whether to keep pushing, or to sit up and take it easy. I fought through it and stayed with the group, but going down the descent of Old Leeds, a motorcycle passed the back half of the group (where I was located) then pulled into the middle of us and caused a split that despite chasing as hard as we could, we were unable to pull back.

When I got home, I downloaded the data from my Polar and saw why this ride hurt so badly. I had 21 minutes of riding with my HR above 176 bpm. More than 1/4 of the ride time. Another 12 minutes between 171 and 176. Jeff, you're always telling me to go deep and stay there. I guess I did tonight.

As a side note, I've really noticed how much nervous energy I expend riding in the peleton. A lot of the riders are triathletes who don't know how to ride around other riders, and the group as a whole is very nervous, and at times a scary place to be. I've seen a rider laying in the road with multiple broken bones and a 3" wide stream of blood running from their fractured skull into the gutter, while his wife lay yard away from him also with multiple broken bones, with two other riders scattered about similarly injured. All victims of a rider who decided to push his limits beyond his capabilities. It's so important to become comfortable with riding in a group if you are going to race. I've spent years riding in large groups, and I still get nervous if one rider is twitchy. Then the ride becomes even harder because I'm wasting energy on something I can't control.

Anyway, tonight's ride was good. It hurt, which I'm actually glad about. If it didn't hurt, I guess it would have been a waste of time, but after looking at my HR data, I feel like it was undoubtably the best anaerobic workout I've had all year. I actually feel like I could go race in Huntsville the end of this month and do well, (but I won't because the last time I raced that event, there were 5 crashes, and I have too many responsibilities to get taken out by some less than intelligent person who can't keep his front wheel out of my rear derailleur).

But I'll keep training anyway. There's something really great about being out in the open, pushing yourself and seeing improvement.

That's what it's all about.