dbikingman

Today, I did the big community ride. I haven't heard the number yet, but I'm guessing in the area of 2,000 riders. They added a 47 mile ride which was my goal. I took off from home a little chilly around 50. On my ride downtown I had a car start to pull out in front of me, but diaster averted. My hamstrings were tight from yesterday, but I continued.

I arrived at the start about 15 minutes before the start. I found my riding partner and his son. It is "our two year anniversary". LOL. We meet at the start of the ride and starting chatting and found out that we lived a few miles apart and decided to due some rides together and it has turned into a friendship.

The ride had three different groups for the start. This helps keep things smooth. I rode slow for the first couple of miles chatting with my friend and sorting out the crowd. I then decided I better pickup the pace because I figured the faster riders were the ones doing the longer ride and I was hoping not to ride alone.

This year I avoided many of the problems encountered in previous years by starting faster. The first ten miles zipped by I rode with a couple of different groups for awhile. My speed was betweeb 17 - 22 MPH, except one short hill. After the first ten miles the longer rider broke off. Almost immediately the climbing began the additional loop was a lot of hills. About the first food stop at about 25 miles I stopped long enough to fill a water bottle. For the last couple of miles before I was having some pain in my hamstring right where it meets the seat. I also was having a little pain behind my left knee. After getting on the bike again both pain went away.

I thought most of the climbing was behind us, but I was wrong

I had the scare of my ride on the downhill. I was going at a pretty good clip, and slowed for a couple corners. I don't know what happend but I experience a high speed wobble/shimmy. I thought for sure I was going to crash. My front tire/forks was shaking violently. I thought maybe I had a flat. I braked slowly and then just about the time I stopped it went away. I later determined my max speed was around 42 MPH. I've gone faster before and didn't experience this. I got up to 30 mph later and never experienced this problem again.

I spent most of this time riding by mysef. I then got back to where the shorter route met up. There were a few people still pedaling.

After the ride, I rode home. Total miles 65, avg speed 15.5 MPH. Oh yeah, I had a car pull out infront of me on the way home too.

But, overall it was a great ride. I decided to push myself for once because I was riding by myself and I wasn't worried about completeing the distance having gone further before.

unabowler

Sounds like a good ride.

dbikingman

One thing nice about riding in a large group is it helps put things in perspective for me. I got passed a couple of different times by guys TOWING a trailer with a kid inside. Now that is humbling. In the past few weeks I've come to realize that even though I ride in hilly terrian it isn't that much when compared to those who climb regularly. Many of my 20 - 30 mile rides only have around 1,200 feet of climbing. I determined I don't push myself enough when I'm out riding alone, well at least not this year. I'm riding faster than last year, just not pushing myself.