Race with the roadie December 21, 2005
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentFirst of all, I didn't know how to spell roadie (is that right?) so I looked it up.
Roadie- a person who works with musicians, especially pop bands, when they are on tour, and helps move and set up their equipment.
Hmmm…isn't something missing or is it just my poor spelling. A person who rides on road bikes, Oxford should add that to their next dictionary.
Anyway, I had a 45km ride which was planned to be 40km but I missed a turn and ended up skipping one of the hills but hit the "fairly big" hill. It's obviously tougher than the usual hill but I don't ride there because I have to change lanes to get to my house and I find that to be dangerous. After that, I went for a 2.5km run just to get my legs used to transitioning from bike to run. Is this the so called, "brick?" Somebody teach me…
The ride: The first 20km was suppose to be LSD but it was more like a GDHU ride. Don't worry if you don't know what GDHU is, I made it up. It stands for Getting Dark Hurry Up. It get's pretty damn dark a bit after 5pm…Do I need a better light? The new one doesn't seem to work well. The 20km back was a TT, really think I'm getting the speed. After riding 5km or so, I caught up to this one muscle man, a roadie. I gave the head nod and said, "good afternoon." The roadie smiled back and said, "good afternoon." Ummm…when's the last time I actually caught up to a roadie from the back…Summer break? It's my second time catching up and ofcourse we raced:-) The roadie speeds to get the guy behind (me) away and the guy behind tries to stick, kinda like those track races.
The race: Without having enough time to talk at all, the traffic light turns green, off we go. Damn this guy is obviously better than me with the technique stuff (shifting, clicking shoes on, etc…). He also had meat legs, kinda like Libor's but smaller and sprinted away in five seconds. I was shocked…I did all this training and this happens…The road happened to be a 5km straight, flat at first and a bit of a climb starting around the 4th km. Not so many traffic lights and some cars but enough lanes to cover them up. I kept my pace up and after a few minutes, I caught up with the guy…hmmm, was he trying to finish me? He looked pretty tired and I was pushing with low cadence, something like 90rpm. After that, we were riding together and he'll just sometimes try to sprint away, I was able to handle it though. He really has the technique but in my opinion, I think he should shift 1or2 gears up because he was spinning at something like 120rpm the whole time, only going at 34kph or so. I was spinning at 100rpm. Here's how I change gears, if I'm spinning over 110rpm, I shift one up, if I'm at 85rpm(on flats) I shift one down. In conclusion (damn my writing is poor…sorry!!) I was able to stick with the guy, wouldn't say it was a victory but obviously didn't lose, thanks for the speed training, roadie!!!
The rest of the ride: I noticed that I missed my turn and ended up taking the hill that's a bit dangerous. Since I didn't feel like getting hit by any cars, I took another longcut (cut?) and kinda detoured towards my house. I stopped my lap a bit before the hill because it would be 25km if I didn't. So, the first 17.68km (I forgot to push the button, again) ave speed 26.9kph, ave cadence 71rpm, time 39'26. The next 18.12km, ave speed 31.7km, ave cadence 76rpm, time 34'14. and a little bit of hills after those…
The short run after: I thought of running 5km but decided not to, just have something against running in the dark. My lap time was 9'15, again, faster than expected. I tried to finish it in 9'30 without peeking at my watch…Sorry, I peeked 2times:-( Anyway, gotta get the mind in control of the body.
Tomorrow: Another bike ride and then if I have time, a short run. After all that, the usual Wednesday swim. 2more days and winter break starts!!!