Originally Posted by sarals

Tuesday Group Ride Report

I treat the group rides I do as training rides, as tests to see how I fare against other (stronger) riders. I rarely do noodle rides, and I never do on a group ride. Because there are terrain features and different riders with different strengths, I break the rides down into segments and try to take from each segment. Today, the first 25 miles were an exercise in utter frustration. It took my legs that long to come around. I felt the callings of "dead legs" not long after I left the house this morning. Their response was sluggish and my HR went much higher than it usually does in the early portions of the ride. On the "8th Street Flat" segment, where I usually fly along with the fast GUYS at 25 to 27 MPH, I was dropped at the outset, struggled along in the wind at 22 MPH, and finally blew up a mile from the finish of the segment. I wasn't really in it mentally, either; knowing my legs weren't their best I sort of gave up and was even going to cut the ride short. However, I gave myself "one more chance", took a different route than the rest of the group to the big climb on Barloy Canyon Road so I could push my way up a short climb on that route. My legs started to feel good on that climb, and then they started to actually feel strong. When I got there, I went up the Barloy Canyon Road climb feeling quite relaxed, spending a lot time OTS and NOT in the lowest gear, and achieving a decent time (for me) going up that hill. After that climb came a series of descents that feature some short rollers prior to the beginning of each of the descents, and I hit those rollers OTS but in the drops and powered my way up them - feeling quite strong and relaxed on each one. On the field sprint, I stayed at the front, tried to take advantage of a lead out (that I missed), and actually had decent power and speed at the end of the sprint (my timing on when to launch is getting better).

Still, my body is so inconsistent. I don't have the answers as to why it will perform so well one day and then so poorly the next. Oh, I see gains, but as I've said time and again, they are incremental and spotty. If I look at achievements overall, I see little to nothing. And, it's still a helpless feeling when I think I'm going really well, feeling good, and then someone drives by me so hard I swear I can feel the ground shake - and I'm powerless to do anything about it! I don't like that feeling. But, I'm used to it.