since the sudden end of the sudden, i think the udder is my new favorite century. its flat, its fast, & its scenic ;).

this was another early rising day, up at 5 am and out the door at 5:45 am. despite leaving very early i was still late. however, the BFNIC gang, that was ready to roll before i even stood in the registration line, cut me some slack and waited.

there were some new faces, but i missed pre ride introductions and the briefing on the approach for the ride. i played catch up on intros and quickly got the idea of the ride.......destroy all legs in site. once we cleared traffic and found some straight roads it was single file and 25 mph. as Psi & Cy pushed the pace i kept thinking; "Hey, didnt these two ride yesterday??"

i had tired legs. i just spent an hour in the car. i was hurting early. i struggled all day to hold the wheel in front of me. didnt matter if it was at the front or the back of the pack. well, not all day. at the 80 mile rest stop i popped some Oreo Cookies. the fuel that powered me the second half of the 07 RAIN ride.

nearing the bottom of the only real significant roller on the route i find myself up front with The Goat. Chuck mentions, a battle for the Polka Dot Jersey. i love pink polka dots and picked the pace up a bit. as we hit the bottom of the roller Chuck takes a flyer. The Goat falls back, but he always falls back before surging past.

this time around The Goat isnt coming. i dont hear him or see him on my wheel. i focus on Chuck, but i am affraid i let him get to far. there is no way i will catch him. then, out of no where comes The Goat and he is flying. i reacted, for the first time today, at mile 90 on a hill, i grab a wheel. we soar past Chuck at 19 mph. he is crushed.

the crest is coming. i dont want to go to early. i wait, then i go. The Goat conceeds as i sprint past to take the points. i believe this puts the season totals at CyLowe 2 / aham23 1.

after that i powered up all the little rollers the route had to offer and brought home my fastest century to date.

the edge stats

later.

Sunday sure was a great ride! It was great to see some familiar faces from last year, and meet some new people. I have to admit I am more of a lurker, than a poster on the forums.

This was one of my favorite rides to date, (other than losing a water bottle :o). Thanks aham23 for sticking back with me to catch the group. Unfortunately, even with clipping along at 25 mph+ we still didn't catch the group till the next stop.

This was also the first group ride I was able to stick with the group. When I looked at my average speed at the first stop, and it was over 22 mph, I was not sure if I could hold on, but I learned riding in a group is easier than trying to catch one.

I just started riding last August, so this road bike thing is new to me. This was the first ride that I didn't use a sport drink, or eat any simple carbs. My night before meal was sushi, and during the ride it was protein drinks and a couple bananas at the stops. I never bonked, and was stronger than any of my previous rides.

I finished just over 5 hr for the century, and I know if I hadn't dropped a bottle, aham23 and I would have broken the 5 hrs. I look forward to riding with you all again, and I might just give the Tuesday night ride a shot :)

Bike Psychos has sub 5 hours written all over it. :thumb:

later.

Hello:
i was a wimp, i did the 50mi in a little over 3 hrs. knowing that i had to work 14hrs. today and for each day through Friday.
will be riding along the Old Plank Road trail on Saturday in Will county.

Finally got the Garmin stats to upload....


http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5847368

Looking at the HR chart you can really see where I started to get drift in between each stop. You can also see the average HR for each section starts to dip. Also if you plot it out over time instead of distance you can see how long the stops were. 2nd and 3rd stops being the longest.

sorry, just reading some of these now...

voldemort, it was way cool to meet you... and a major congrats on your first century!! You were great out there on Sunday, for sure!:) I'm sure as you hang with the bigboys from this group, you will no doubt get faster and faster. Next year at this time, maybe I'll hook up a motor to my bike to keep up with y'all at the next Udder, LOL:innocent: Great ride... and nice meeting you finally too :)

dang, sweet stats there Psimet!! I love that MotionBased application... I so gotta get me one of those Garmin's. I like how it differentiates between moving time and total time... pretty neat.... and 20.0 avg is insane!!, that's great :) Next purchase... Garmin Edge 305:D

also, I ordered Shimano FC-R700 crank (compact). They did not have one in stock at Performance in Schaumburg... we stopped by on the way home from Udder. So I went to order it early Monday morning, and it had gone down in price even more, to $179.00!!, and then on top of a 10% coupon I had, I got it for $161.00, nice price huh!!... but here's the kicker... the next day I get an email saying it's on backorder and I won't receive it until after June 13th, argggh. So much for riding TOMRV on a double (or compact, oh well).:cry: