Riding in Circles and Other Such Nonsense

This morning I woke up before the alarm. I love that! 2 seconds later it went off. I hate that! But anyway my girlfriend came to collect me at the usual time and as we do every weekend we headed out for our bike ride. We met the rest of the gang. Smaller bunch this week thanks to Christmas I guess. As we were all gathering my girlfriend starts at me about waiting this week when we do the time trial to make sure everyone was ready. Sure I say. She is all forceful saying that we should pick a speed we can all do and stick to that. Sure I say, but the problem is that we ride with guys. And sorry sweetpea but you are the slowest in the group. Not my fault. The idea of the paceline time trial is to start together in one long line so that all bikes are about 6" off the back of the bike in front. As the guy on the front gets tired he drops out and we swap turns off the front. The pace increases and if you begin to tire then you will be 'dropped' by the train and spat out the back. Last weekend there were four boys and I who left the 5 other girls behind as we time trialed along a stretch of road that goes for about 4kms. And I got spat out. No problemo. Just got to work harder is all.

So this week I dutifully waited when we got the the flat spot and waited for my friend to jump on my wheel and another girl behind her. 2 boys in front I found myself in 3rd wheel. It's a good place to be. Once we were all 'on' the train we set off by increasing the speed slowly. I let the draft of the boys pull me along and ticked my legs over making sure not to go out too hard. I took my turn at the front as the boys rolled through. My girlfriend and the other girl didn't have a go on the front. We were coasting at 30km on a slight incline. We hit a 90degree bend in the road to the left and soared through the apex of the corner and into the straight. It was an amazing feeling. I didn't look behind me to see if the girls were still there. Its too dangerous. I just kept my focus on the boys in front and worked hard as we lifted the speed now at 34kms another slight rise and the road turns a bit gravelly. The boys have dropped me here before and so I worked hard by standing in the pedals and humping up the rise. Sucking their wheels I worked hard til they hit 38kms and then I was done. They pulled away slowly and as they did I got dumped out of the draft zone with about 500m to go to the end, and from there you are hitting the wind yourself and all of the work comes back to you.

I continued to work hard on my own and now I was doing 32kms. I met the boys at the end of the road. Not too far behind. I was pretty chuffed. I know I have to let the boys go and do their speed. It wouldn't be fair to tell them to ease when they have so much more power than me. I chatted with them happily as we recovered and waited for the girls, and waited, and waited.

I met up with my girlfriend and asked how she went. She said she went really well. But got spat out at the very first corner. She said she mananaged to hold 34kms all the way along til the end. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm does anyone else think what I'm thinking?

Anyway, f.b status of my girlfriends this morning at the end of the ride. Had a great ride, was strong all day. Stayed with the time trial and felt awesome.

b*sh*t! got to let it go. Just let it go!