Saturday, June 30, 2007

On Riding with the Guys...

I'm tired.
and I've been delinquent on blogging...had a busy week and was pretty much preoccupied. No real excuses.

Tonight, there looks to be a fire nearby. The smoke is coming in, and the sky that was so clear and beautiful today is now hazy and smoky. Good thing I got a ride in this morning!

Speaking of the ride this morning, I have had a hard training week. I did hill repeats on Lladera following a group ride on Tuesday, a recovery 2 hour ride on Wednesday, did Gibraltar, etc., on Thursday, short spin Friday, and somehow decided I needed to work hard today. So today I went on the 8am ride which goes around Lake Casitas. When I get there this morning, I happen to be the only girl going around the lake. This is always a bit worrisome to me. Things go through my mind like "hmmm...I wonder if I know the way," "I wonder if they'll wait for me somewhere if I get dropped," "I wonder if I'll get yelled at this week for doing something lame," etc... Then the confidence attempts to take over, and I tell myself "I'm a decent rider, I am a good bike handler, I love to climb, this will be fun, etc."

The ride started out fine...not as fast as some of these rides can be, and my legs were feeling ok, especially considering what I had done to them earlier in the week. The first part of the ride was fine, but then when turning onto hwy 150, a big truck ended up splitting the group, so I was a chasing! I knew that this would not be a good thing, as I worked hard before the climbing even started! Oh well...I climbed at my own pace and was holding a pretty steady power, so i was pleased. I have what I have, and if it's not quite enough to hand with all the guys, so be it! I'm still working at it! Thankfully there was a regroup at the top of the 2nd climb, and I am happy to say that there were plenty of people behind me too...somehow not being last does a good bit for the old ego!

Going down around Lake Casitas was fun. I am still feeling the fact that I'm not quite aggressive enough, but I"m working at it. The right thoughts definitely go through my head...I just hesitate a tad too long before acting on them! I guess that is just inexperience. I do think that all these fast group rides have made me much better in that regard. But I still get in a bad spot when I get stuck behing a bad wheel and don't jump around before everyone passes me...and then I have to work twice as hard to get back in a decent position. Live and learn!

Anyway, I hung in there back around the lake and all the way to Ventura, where we then have to ride back to SB. Part of this ride goes on an access road, and then pops on the freeway for a bit. Now, by this point, about 50 miles in or so, I'm feeling pretty tired. We're pacelining and I am doing fine, holding my own, able to do what i'm supposed to, when we have to pass through this little barrier..and before i was even through it someone attacked! Oh well...as I see the rest of them all go up and onto the freeway and there was no way I could hang on...way to attack in a good spot, guys... Anyway, thankfully a couple of nice guys hung back and towed me back :-). For the most part, the folks around here are pretty nice. However, I HATED being the GIRL that people had to wait for! The motivation to not suck makes me dig pretty darn deep.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful...I got a flat when we got back to town. Just more motivation to change the tires I've had on my bike since february. I'm pretty excited I probably got 3500 miles on them at least! They are pretty toast though, so I'm changing them tonight.

Ride Summary: 68 miles, 3 hours, probably 3-4K climbing (but didn't look at the computer file yet), max speed 47mph, some tired legs tonight.
Cost Summary: New Tube $6, New Tires: $100. CO2 cartridge: $3. Getting stronger: Priceless.

8 comments:

Steve Weixel said...

Brush fire off the San Marcos Pass
http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=6733380

Looks fire started around 6:30 near Paradise Road...

dr-nitro said...

$3 for a co2 cartridge? The high price of living on the Riviera of California.

profkim said...

dr-nitro: yup...everything's expensive here....I did buy 2 though... so its not that bad.
Isn't your area just as expensive?
Oh..one question for ya...Im thinking of racing the SLO crit in August...is it a fun course?

dr-nitro said...

The SLO crit is a great course. Goes through the mission, there is some elevation change, and usually draws a crowd. Definitely worth the drive up from the Riviera.

Chris said...

You should ask your teammates to go on this ride with you. I think it would be hard to be the only girl on a ride weather you are super fast or not. 3500 miles on tires?? If I get 1000 on a set before they are all chewed up from these back roads I am doing good.

Steve Weixel said...

Kim, I'll be going to that one, as will Chester. I don't know if you've met him... he just started riding with Echelon in the last few months.

Itinerant Rick said...

Mixed rides as training can get dicey as all the testosterone kicks in. A couple of the local rides try to do mixed but then seem to segregate to a large degree, which works if there is enough of both genders.

SLO crit sounds fun. I was hoping it would match one of the weekends we have to be in Arroyo Grande (Ms Chatterboxes parents are there) so we could join in the fun. Darned, next AG weekend is Aug 25/26, two weeks too late. Sigh. Have fun!

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

cyclistrick...redo your schedule! I want to meet you and ms. chatterbox! I'd love to race with her!!! Come on...its not that far!