Pictured: some folks from Tea'm Sweet Leaf, and some from Austin Cycle Camp. Plus a piece of my shoulder. Saturday the 16th was supposed to be Team Sweet Leaf's first scheduled training ride, and I was really nervous about it. Up until now, I've been "training" by riding circles around The Veloway (a 3.1 mile bikes-only road near the end of MoPac), and it's nothing like the open road we'll be on during the race. It's mostly trafficked by pleasure cruisers and lollygaggers, and I know it hasn't helped my riding much.
So I was secretly happy when our ride got rained out. In fact, I'd decided beforehand to skip the ride, and didn't even know it was canceled until later that day. But I made up for it the next day by joining the Austin Cycling Association on a two-hour 22 miler up in the Northwest corner of the city. It turned out to be a lot of fun--all of the riders in my group were friendly, and most of them were happy to ride at a leisurely pace. I did pretty well (despite forgetting my water bottle and briefly being chased by dogs), and I was (stupidly) emboldened by how easy the ride seemed.
This past Saturday, we finally had our first official team ride, tagging along with the folks at Austin Cycle Camp. We started in south Austin and rode about 16 miles, through downtown Buda and out toward Kyle.
At first I rode really well, keeping near the middle of the pack. But it quickly became apparent that these riders were far more experienced and athletic than I was. After a while, we broke off into groups, and I struggled just to stay in the middle. After the turnaround, I fell way behind, and ended up riding the last 15 minutes completely solo. It wasn't the distance that hurt (we actually rode 5 miles less than my ride the weekend before), it was the brisk pace. And by the end, my legs felt like logs. Burning logs.
In any event, I've now got two actual rides under my belt, and I'm serious about improving. Looks like it's gonna take a while, though.
Cycling benefits greatly from repeated exercise. Just put in as many base miles as you can and you'll be all square come the MS150.
ReplyDeleteAlso, consider a pace that works for you from the beginning. You'll have some mates around, and you can draft off them if you start to feel tired.
Nice work.
Hey Man!
ReplyDeleteYou are a rock star and we're so stoked to have you on our team!! Don't sweat the pace, there are always going to be folks that are uber fast and those that aren't. (Along w/the folks in between!) The important thing is that you get the mileage in the saddle and you get comfortable riding with people. Training on these insane central TX hills is imperative too, and trust me when I say that you'll have plenty of chances to practice that as time goes on.
If you are riding w/other groups, be sure to post it on our Facebook Tea'm page (email me for the link since I can't seem to copy and paste it here.) so we can join you!
Keep the blog posts coming and feel free to link to our training ride posts too!
-April Riggs
Tea'm Sweet Leaf Tea