cydewaze

Mrs cyde is away for a week, so I've been left to my own devices. The good thing about riding with the Mrs is that I have someone of consistent speed to help set the pace. Without her, I do stupid things, like going full-tilt right out of the starting gate, like I did today. I know I ride better when I have a slow warmup, but can I actually DO a slow warmup when I'm on my own? Hell no.

So I head out for a lunchtime ride. There are two ways out of here. An MUP that leads to a park that's on a quiet side road, and the actual street that leads out to route 124. Right now, there's construction going on, and as a result, the MUP is closed. So it looks like I'm doing the other ride that's off of 124. Now to get out this way, there's an immediate climb, followed by a 1/10th mile sprint down 124 to the next side road. I call it a sprint because you either sprint when there's a clear spot in traffic, or you get crowded off the road because there's no shoulder to speak of. After that, you're on a road that's rolling hills, but around 65% of it is downhill. Plus, there always seems to be a tailwind, so you can really keep moving if you want.

Now, if I had a brain, I'd crawl up the hill to get out, and after the sprint I'd take it easy on the rollers after that. But no. I'm an idiot, and I blast up that first hill like Lance f-ing Armstrong in a 53x19. Then I hammer the sprint. Then I go 90% on the rollers. By the time I get to the 5 mile mark, my average speed is 22.0, and my legs are complete toast.

So I cruise along and make my way to the halfway point. Now everything is uphill, AND I have a headwind, and my legs are like wood, and my knees are sore and aching from going hard when cold. I schlep along in the small ring for most of the rest of the ride. By the time I get home, my average speed is slower than when the wife and I do this ride and chit-chat the whole way.

If I had ONE living brain cell, I'd take it easy on the first section and be good for the rest of the ride, but obviously I don't. And at my age, I'll probably never learn.

fmw

And the older we get, the quicker we tire.......

Doggus

Testosterone is always better tempered with a little estrogen.

Kuma

No regrets, Cydewaze! At least you were able to get out at lunch!

lotek 

and
The older I get, the faster I was. . . .

cuda2k

Great story dude, I'm often the same way. I can do the weekly group rides with a bunch of folks and feel like I'm being held back in the pack but end up with a solid avg speed. Do the same route solo and I blow myself up on the way out and suffer on the return trip. But I can't use the same excuse Lotek mentions above (at least not for another 10-20 years.)

celticfrost

Sounds like a good and fun training day to me. I don't have too many living brain cells either.

mollusk

Kind of like my day.

I had appointments all morning and an open docket for the afternoon and had promised to pick up the boys after school. (They had rideden their bikes to school in the AM). So it's a little after noon and I figure I can ride home and get my old road bike out for a recovery ride and still have time to meet the boys at their school for the ride home. I hustle home on my beater ATB commuter bike, make a quick change, eat not nearly enough lunch, pump up the tubs on my 20 year old C'dale, dig out my old Dettos and off for a short and pleasant ride. Yesterday was a mega-hammer day and there wasn't a whole lot left in the legs for any kind of serious effort today.

The ride out was very nice. This should have raised the red flags! I knew I had a tailwind, but I didn't know that I had a 15 mph tailwind with gusts over 20 mph. I make the turn and boy it's a bit harder going back. "OK", I think, "I'll just have to put out a wee bit more than planned in order to make it back in time." As I'm riding the rear wheel starts to feel like it is going out of true very slowly. I stop and investigate and see that it is suffering a tread separation and is on the verge of blowing up. Dang! Peel off the old tire and slap on a new one. Now pump it up and I find myself in some serious time difficulty. The next 13 miles were a real sufferfest in order to meet my youngest before he was taken off to the afterschool program. Not what I had planned, but there it is.

webist

I think I know the feeling. I can turn a 30-minute warm-up into a 30-foot warm-up without even thinking.

Seems that when I warm-up for 30 minutes or so I can ride forever. If I hammer after a 30-foot warm-up, I ain't riding far that day.

nobrainer440

I have the same tendency. For my first few rides this year, I burned myself out on the first half of my standard loop and my average speed suffered (16-17 mph). Then I did a ride with my friend who just started riding, and I pulled him most of the way. I made sure to pace myself at the beginning so I didn't lose him, and surprise! I hit the end of the ride and our average was 17.7 mph. Almost a full mph faster than my best this year on that loop. (Although still 1 mph off the end of last year's pace.)

cydewaze

Ugh, and to top it all off, I'm dehydrated. I was eating dinner and got muscle spasms in the inside of my thigh about 1/3 of the way up from the knee.

At least I'm not the only one who has trouble pacing himself.

GuitarWizard

I need to start warming up on the trainer to get an effective warmup in.