Last Saturday I went down to Tarmac and once again I chose to inflict upon myself the suffering that comes with riding the Pain Train. I'll skip a description of the specific ride to instead focus on why I do this to myself.
Just six weeks ago I was raging about getting dropped on yet another edition of the Peach Peleton training ride. I was cranky not just that I got dropped but that the pace was just plain unwarranted and in obvious violation of at least a half a dozen statutes of the United Nations' Code on the Humane Treatment of Test Subjects. More than that, I was tired of being fat and slow and all of that. So why, when the group got together for a ride between race weekends, did I cheerfully sign on for a 80 mile spin through the back country of Georgia at a pace that would surely bring an investigation by Amnesty International? Do I like pain (well, yes, sort of...at least pain on the bike)? Do I enjoy groveling behind the Cat I and II riders who eat guys like me for breakfast and then pick their teeth with the spokes left over from our crushed and burned wheels (that bit...not so much)?
Actually, as I told the ride leader, I hate getting my ass kicked but I like the results. We trained a lot harder on Saturday than any of the races I've done this year and I suffered more than I did bridging back to the group at Perry in the road race. Lance said that the key to winning was to train harder than you race and the Peach peleton rides make me do that. The rotating paceline intervals pushed me over my lactate threshold for short bursts over 50 times in the first 40 miles of the ride. That'll make my time trials faster, allow me to surge with the group and help me to sustain breaks when I get better creating them. Pushing up the climbs on Pleasant Grove Church Road will help me to ride the climbs in Gainesville and Chattanooga harder and fast and I'll recover from the efforts more quickly.
In hindsight, I didn't do too badly compared to the other Cat IV guys in the group as I was pretty midpack (especially given that the Friday before the ride was Good Friday and I fasted to some extent)-faster than some and slower than others. More importantly, I pulled my weight through all of my interval sessions at the pace the Cat I/II guys wanted until the bigger hills so I guess I can't be too disappointed. I still hate getting dropped and I'm still too fat but there is hope. I'm not as slow and I'm not as fat and soon I won't grovel. Soon I'll be svelte and handsome and supermodels will be calling me wondering when I'm going to race so they can come and be amazed at my bicycling manliness...OK, well, maybe not the last two but I can see the chance of getting into good enough shape that I can go to Lexington in July and race Masters' Nationals.
I think that the next step is to get specific and to get technical. I need a PowerTap and CyclingPeaks and, eventually, a coach (maybe Letterman from the Electric Company can come to my house and change my couch to a coach with his super letter changing powers and save me a bundle). Anyone have a PowerTap they feel like giving me? One positive thing is that I have an opportunity to have a fit session with Olympian Nathan O'Neil and Spinblade to refine my position and my pedaling mechanics.
Thanks for Reading.
