Keeping it Moving

The week after something like Santos is always a slow week for me because I need time to let my body recover. I can ride alot, but it's only going to hurt so I thought it would be better if I picked some select days to ride, and played some table tennis in the meantime.

I did ride this week, so I'll try to recap it. I took off Sunday and Monday as the legs were aching. Tuesday morning I went out to do my 40 mile time trial, and had a nice ride going for the first hour, but got hit by some light rain which was not too bad. It was the 15 degree drop in weather that made me cut out of the ride 10 miles early.

Wednesday I went out to Markham to do 6 Hospice style laps, and I had some bike problems. First I had a bent hanger. On top of that the cable came out of the groove that is on the deraileur. As a result I destroyed the shifter.

Whatever happened at Markham would have happened at Santos, as the shifter stopped working about 3 miles into the course. So I just rode it out, and went home.

Since the day of singletrack was bust, I decided to play some table tennis. I'm getting more and more skill back every week. Here are some highlights from the session.

I skipped Thursday on the bike, and went to the YMCA in Weston to do a spin class.

I hate spinning, because I just overheat in that room. I normally go there becuase I have a 2hr session with 2 of my table tennis clients.

I'm actually better friends than clients with these guys.

Z-Motion Ride
I took Friday off, but planned a big day on the bike for Saturday. My boy Wes had been telling me about the Z-Motion ride that leaves in Parkland. Since they have B&J as their core of high level riders, it a guarantee that the ride is going to go anaerobic at some point.

I had got some great guidance from Namrita on how how I should approach my nutrition on the bike with regards to sodium, and my carbs based on my weight, height, and body fat. Based on her protocol I was straight "Overdosing on Sodium". I was dumping in my sports powder, and salt solution into my bottle. Not to mention the power gels has sodium in them. For the Saturday ride I prepared my bottle to Nam's exact specifications.

I get to Wes house and we warm up over to Pat's house where the ride leaves from, and other riders slowly trickle in. Enzo, Flaco and Victor have moved up to Pro 1,2, so I know their legs are primed and ready to go.

Once we get going the ride is slow as it goes in and out of backstreets. Wes told me that once we get down to SR 84, all hell breaks loose for that 6.5 mile stretch, then everyone waits for the riders that got unhitched. Before we get to Hiatus there are 3 riders off the front, so things heat up. We are going 27mph into a headwind, and I'm not excited about taking a pull as it's going to be painful as I have not done any high end efforts all week. But by the time take my pull I'm feeling good, so I put my head down and take a 90 second pull over 28mph. Don got unhitch, and I realize it was Victor and Joel up the road. My HR starts at 153bpm, and when I pull through I'm at 178bpm. OK, a brother needs a break. It keeps going though.

I recover faster than I expected and I'm able to go off the front with Victor and we walk down a 3-man group that is off the front. My HR is over 170bpm again. Man, we haven't even got to Oakland yet. This is going to get much more painful. There about 6 major, major players on this ride and that is Enzo, Flaco, Victor, Me, Sheldon, and a guy in a Florida Premiere uniform. All of these players can take pulls over 31mph and hold it, so having that flow allows the ride to keep a high pace when other riders coming in and take pulls.

We get to Oakland Park and I'm behind Flaco. This guy is a beast and he can take a pull as such a high pace that it will kill your ability to take a pull. He is taking it easy at 27mph, and when he pulls through at 136th, I'm in the front. I take it all the way down to just pass Sunrise and I don't go under 28mph. Since I'm new to the ride and noone knows me no gap is opened for me to get back in near the front. So I go all the way to the back, and I fully recovered by the time we get to SR 84. Side Note: I can't remember the last time I did a ride this hard. The Sheridian ride is slightly faster, but with 80 people in the ride it is very hard to get this type of workout. Plus, there are much more attacks that go off the front even if the rider at the front is smashing it. I have been riding in nice group rides so long, that I almost forgot what is like to be in a ride where attacks go off the front in the middle of a hard effort. Welcome to the B&J ballers.

Hell has already broke loose about 6 times, so what is going to happen now that we are 84. Things get going and by the time we go through 136th, the pace is over 29mph, and things start shaking up. Sheldon is at the front and take a monster pull and he spends enough time above 31mph that I stop looking at my speedometer. When he pulls through, Joel goes right him. By the time we get to Weston Road there is a group of us that are off the front. It's Flaco, Victor, Enzo, Sheldon, Don, and myself.

The guys in the Florida Premiere uniform takes a Jurassic pull over 32 mph and holds if for over 50 seconds. After that we settle down to a nice pace that has us increasing the gap on the second group. Everyone is playing nice, then Victor and Flaco start doing "Gorilla Surges", and that cripples the nice hard pace we had going.

I take every surge the Enzo starts and it seems to be putting Sheldon into difficulty. He doesn't have a quick start to surge, so Enzo has the upperhand as his first 10 pedal strokes usually get him over 31mph. Noone is working together as surges keep coming and everyone is looking around for someone to form something.

Flaco slips off the front while everyone is trying to manage the acid bath in their legs. Enzo is still looking back for Sheldon and whenever he has a gap he does a attack that gaps Sheldon, but Sheldon grinds his way back up to the group. The second group is gaining because Enzo is discouraging anyone front forming a chase group to get Flaco with his multiple surges. About a half mile from Glades I go off the front by myself and I decided to keep my pace above 31 for as long as I can, and I'm about to get to 47 seconds. My HR is 182bpm when I take the turn onto Glades and everyone regroups.

Some of the riders that got dropped were taking a long time to catch up, and Flaco was up the road still keeping a nice pace. So about 6 of us waited for everyone, then took Glades up to Weston Road, made a right, then cut over to South Post to see if we could meet with the group that dropped us. There was Flaco leading a group on South Post up and over I-75 while we were at the light. He didn't wait up, he kept it moving. A chase group kinda forms, but it falls a part at the round-about when we have an exchange with a guy in his Porsche.

We get to the Mobil Station, and Wes says, "We've never gone that fast before". We leave the mobil station just as the Sheridian Ride rolls in,m and I'm happy as I know I got a much better workout. At this point I'm sure that the pace will be slow on the way back. Wrong! Before we get to the first light we are going 27mph, and I look at Wes and he shakes his head. I'm sure that effort that I did once we got going was the hardest effort I did this year, and the front group was putting out the same medicine. This effort was not what I bargained for, but I got involved anyway. I'm a decent sprinter, I can take pulls with just about anyone, and I can handle the multiple surges.

We get up pass Oakland and the pace and effort is just as hard as the Florida Premiere guy takes the speed over 35mph with me on this wheel. When he pulls through I stay on the front and do a 20 second countdown based on pedal stroke, then I pull through. That surge he provoked the heavy hitters and they started animating the ride even more. To make a long story short, the last 20 miles was just as fast as the first "Hard Effort Stretch" going South and I was actually looking forward to looking at the workout chart.

We get back to Pat's house, and I just take off my helmet and sit on his garage floor that is carpet. I start stretching just to make sure the muscles don't get too stiff. Once everyone rolls we, we go in for one of the most gansta as meals you can have after a 70 mile effort. Man, Pat hooked it up. Boiled Eggs, Egg Casserole, Spinach/Cheese/Crab Casserole, Bagels, Pancakes, Juice, Coffee, and Fruit. I hope I'm not leaving anything out. I was more concerned about how the stomach would take a good meal like that after such a hard effort. I normally eat light when I get home. But the "Nam Program" had my stomach feeling ok, so I was able to eat 2 servings of Egg Casserole and 2 boiled eggs without any problems. We chat a little about the ride, and racing in general. This guy Pat is a great host and a cycling fanatic. Wes had been asking me to come to this ride for about 5 weeks now, and I'm glad I came. It's a great group of guys and gals that just love to ride their bikes. If I'm not racing I'll definitely come out and do this ride.

After the meal I needed a couch, as my body has completely shut down. The ride back to Wes's house was like walking the Green Mile as my body was pretty tempermental about wanting to be on the bike, but I managed it. Next time I do this ride, I'm going to just ride to Pat's house instead. It was a great day on the with a really nice group of people.

I got home and I was eager to look at the chart. Here is the complete chart.

We actually went slow going back and forth on the backstreets, and here is what it looked like once we got going. Anything in the read indicate we are more than racing.

We went over 32mph 11 times in this 20mile stretch and had a Avg of over 25mph, see.

The last 20 mile stretch was just as fast, and I felt like we went a lot faster, and a lot harder. We hit about 7 lights and that dramatically drops the Avg Speed. Here is the chart for that stretch.

We still were able to Avg over 24miles per hour with all the stops, see.

I went out Sunday and played more table tennis for 3 hrs, then I went out and did a recover ride for 1hr making it 4hrs for the day. This week I plan to pick up the distance in my rides on the mtn bike, and wait for my legs to come around before I really pick up the intensity.

Until then, I'll see you on the dirt or asphault

Pacer Out.