Sorta Group Ride.

Tonight's group ride was probably the hardest one all year. It's a really hilly ride. I drove the car to the shop to get a head start on darkness and to be there in plenty of time to change and hang out with the guys beforehand. Well, in the last minute I decided to get a light on the front and back of my bike since it was pretty obvious we were gonna be riding past dark. After 15 minutes of fumbling around with installing the lights, switching to a different front light and telling everyone to leave without me, I was ready to go. I ended up leaving 10 minutes after everyone else. I time-trialed up St. Thomas and towards the big hill thinking I'd catch them there. Nope. My new bike is really dialed in now that I lowered the seat a tiny bit. Before it felt like I couldn't get any power to the pedals. Staying in the drops the whole time out through Boring there was still no sign of everyone else. Finally on Falls Road after an hour and 10 minutes of hammering I noticed the tell-tale blinking taillights of riders. That felt good. I passed two stragglers, and then caught everyone else at the next sprint point. They were waiting.

We all rode together from there to the final big challenge every week on Caves Road. That hill isn't long or particularly steep, but it's enough to create a good gap if you go super hard. I told my wife earlier my plan was to attack halfway up that hill and see what kind of gap I could get on everyone, then try to hang on as long as possible while saving just the tiniest bit just in case someone caught me. Well, Clark is really strong and he did catch me, then went around. I grabbed his wheel and we traded pulls the last few miles until the finish. Marc and Pete were right behind us the whole time so it was a real challenge to try and keep the gap we had built up.

I went hard up the last little climb and arrived in a coffin back at St. Thomas Cemetery with Clark, Marc and Pete right on my tail. That was hard but fun. I was completely cooked at that point. 1hour, 45 minutes, 34.2 miles, 19.5 mph average, 43 mph max speed, 177bpm max heart rate (That must've been on caves where I went all out for a bit)