Beware Sunday Cycling Club 'Recovery' Rides
 

I go out with the local touring club for a 'recovery' ride. 50 miles, rolling hills. They split up into 'A' and 'B' rides. The 'A' ride is mostly Freds, a couple of pretty fast Freds, one other road racer, one expert MTB dude. This group of 10 eventually breaks up into 5 and 5, I'm in the front group. Long story short: I went harder than I wanted to, and that's because on a 'recovery ride' there is always a couple of guys for whom it's their own personal Sunday Tour de France stage. I know because in the past I have been one of those guys on rides like this.

Oh well. 56 miles today, lots of intervals, I went too hard. I did not recover much. But I did have a good time, and more importantly, I did not have to drive my car any place, which the last 6 straight weekends of racing (including Saturday of this weekend) have entailed. Moral of the story:

>1 RB + 1TP = BR

(More than 1 Road Bicycle + 1 Telephone Pole = Bicycle Race)

But you would have been proud of me, I did restrain my Road Nazi impulses to Crush Their Fred Souls and Pwn them. The fact that I flatted with 4 miles to go on the ride did help with that.

Definition of bike race: two (or more) people on bicycles, pointed in the same direction.

How's your recovery going? ;)

there's no such thing as a group recovery ride.

It's a day at a time subby.

+1000. found that out myself today.

haha, I got bored and went all stage 17 floyd on the slower sunday group

I only stayed away for 12 miles though because there's always 4-5 guys who can't just let someone ride off

Never forget that on Stage 17 Floyd had a Power Tap SL, and now Pcad has one too. Now all I need are the drugs and I'm all set.

I did his trademark faux-TT position on descents and took every corner on the inside

I am...hopeless

and don't forget the Denial...you'll need lots of that...LOTS

there is no such a ride with more than 2 people that actually is a recovery ride.. It is always funny when you show up to these rides, there are always 2 camps. The person who rode hard the day before and is looking forward to an easy ride. The more dangerous rider is the guy who proclaims he is out of shape and needs a nice easy ride to get back in shape. This rider will drop the hammer as soon as the ride starts.

That fact that I participate in amateur bicycle racing is overwhelming evidence of my impressive denial and self-delusion capabilities, don't you think?

same thing happened on my ride yesterday.
one group of 5 was suppose to practice sprints and another group who was on a sunday recovery ride joined up.
it made a group of 10 very figgity "watching everyone's move" kind of ride. We all rode for 10 miles before some started sprinting like mads trying to all out do each other.
thankfully for me, my group decided to let them go and practice our own stuff, overall 32 miles of line pacing, intervals and a couple sprints.

news flash. I'm still a dead weight on hills.

Don't forget your whiskey...

Solution to group recovery ride: Leave your bike in 39-19 or higher. If your legs hurt, slow down. But don't forget to bring the iPod so you don't get bored riding alone ;)