A Night At The Races

I want to ride my bicycle...I want to ride my bike...

Yesterday was Tuesday here in Birmingham. That means that in the evening you can join the Tuesday Night Pain Train and get all you can take of suffering.

For me, this was my first attempt at hurting myself. In previous weeks I'd been coming off this nasty respiratory infection sweeping through Birmingham, and had family commitments, so I had cut my rides short before the real pain began. Not so last night. Things were relatively moderate as we worked out way out through the neighborhoods to the east side of town (Irondale), and I found myself near the front thinking (hoping?) that things wouldn't be too hard later.

Jaws was never my style, and I don't like Star Wars

Well, I did like Star Wars, but anyway...when the hammer dropped on Ruffner Road, my legs were quickly re-aquainted with their enemies, aches and cramps. Ruffner was fast. And sloppy. Between one rider ( a triathlete) who insisted on riding in her aero bars (a huge group riding no-no) and another rider who would jump out of the recovery line into anything remotely resembling a gap in the work line (which makes everyone behind the psuedo-gap slow up to avoid a pile-up, never mind what it does to the recovery line) it was a nervous, and skittish return to racing.

At the end of Ruffner, I had a quick 30 seconds to recover before we turned onto John Rogers Drive (aka Dog Track) and the speed wound up again. Only this time, it's faster. And uphill. I spent most of JRD yo-yo-ing off the back of the main group into no man's land and catching back up again. Mr. "I'll jump into any gap, no matter how small" nearly took me down as I was winding up for the sprint to the bridge. I was quite annoyed. A crash at 30 mph would have been painful.

D2 and Rick went to the front on 78 and so the pace going up the hill to Old Leeds Road was reasonable, and I had a good 3-4 minutes to recover before the pace skyrocketed and my leg cramps returned. So I slowed a bit as I dug some endurolytes out of my pocket and sucked them down. Then I had to chase to get back to the group, fighting the cramps until the magic capsules did their work and I could return to full power.

Well, if I thought Ruffner was fast, Old Leeds was considerably faster. But Old Leeds was re-paved last year, so it's smooth and fast, where Ruffner is potholed and nasty rough for large sections. Anyway, speed was high and the legs were hurting, but I kept remembering that I was nearly finished for the night and I just had to stay with them through the sprint to the top of the hill, then I could rest on the 40 mph downhill before the rollers around Mt. Brook Country Club started up.

Results

Unofficially of course. There are no results to these "races" except, did you hang? Or did you get shelled? For me, the satisfying answer is that while I struggled on Dog Track (no surprise there, climbing hills at 20mph+ is not my forte), I was never in any real danger of getting dropped unless I decided to quit. This means I am considerably more fit than I was at this point last year, despite a month of feeling lousy and not getting more than 20 miles a week in.

It's also clear that most of the cool kids are also stronger at this point this year than last, as the pace was high and painful.

I have a new century I'm doing the first weekend in May, in Chattanooga, TN. It's got plenty of climbing, and I'm hoping that it will be a good building event for Cherohala 5 weeks later. But I've got to be able to finish it, and so I'll suffer on Tuesdays, even though I'd like to take it easier this early in the year.

Bottom line, I'm feeling more confident today than I was yesterday. Of course it could all come unhinged next Tuesday. One thing I'm definitely noticing is that each year it's a little harder physically, but I have an easier time digging mentally. Maybe what age takes away in one area, it gives back in another.