Turtle in the Road

Good morning! I've had a delay in my blogging for a couple days, but I've been biking up some hills in my off time!

The whole CENTURY ride concept scared me. Before I signed up for the event, I checked in with several people that have an understanding on my fitness level and have experience with a century ride. Mr. Robert Miceli - part time professional bike master told me to increase my mileage slowly, but assured me the challenge wasn't too big for the time frame. Despite having the backing of their professional opinions and solid advice, I still wanted to quickly get the miles under my belt.

Yesterday morning, I met up with the Landry's Westborough group ride for a 7am departure. The group consisted of 10 riders and we split off into two groups - short 20 mile distance and the long distance. I already accomplished a 24 mile ride earlier in the week so again, I self graduate myself to capabilities beyond my knowledge or ability.

Graduation Picture with the sunrise on my face


Lesson 1: When joining a new group ride, make certain to nail down the distance of the ride.

All I knew was I wanted to ride further than 20 so I rolled along for the ride without much apprehension or concern. It was briefly discussed that we were riding for 40 miles at around 15 - 17mph. It was 7am, the sun was rising and we were zooming around the most beautiful part of the state. Zooming is a technical road bike term for traveling in unknown towns and roads. I am fairly certain we traveled through Westborough, Northborough, Berlin, but we biked 47 miles so we might have also dipped into Marlborough, Bolton and Hudson. I love having a great excuse to be up so early in the morning again. The sun was rising over the roads as we reached greater heights throughout the trip. We saw a turtle in the road and a couple of turkeys, but the turkeys are a usual occurence in the MetroWest arena.

I had the pleasure of riding with Rich, Vickie and Dale. Rich is our Landry's guide. Vickie is an experienced rider that gave me tons of great advice about my upcoming century ride. Dale is a south centralite from Oxford and has been only biking for a couple years, but he gave me great advice about group rides and the importance of drafting. He was very amsued that I joined in for such a long ride, but had only rode 24 miles prior to this. He took pity on me and announced to the group that we had reach my peak at 26 miles. Despite slowing them down, they seemed happy to have me along. They took time to teach me and demonstrate a pace line. They travel very close to each other, but this pace line and drafting business definitely helps to save energy. The group also told me about strategies for the century ride. Groups like these are so very helpful. It's the easiest way to gain some quick knowledge and they are all very willing to share lessons learned and best practices.

My new homework assignment includes

1. Finding a friend for the century - I need a drafting and direction reader!?

2. Clipless pedals & bike shoes (best thing since sliced bread)

I had been very spectacle until this last ride. How can something that initial causes falls make me that much faster? I don't even want to be faster! I have Lance Armstrong Nike Free sneakers. What better shoe could you have? The answer is the Lance Armstrong biking shoes would be better! At the end of our 47 mile ride, we were on a long stretch from Northborough center traveling past ... another favorite golf course to Rt 9. It was very flat and the others three darted off without me. I was really cranking to keep up. Mr. Landry Rich told me that I've a very good rider and he's very impressed, but assured me I would be crushing him if I had the clipless pedals. Not sure how he knows this would be appealing to me ... Check out what REI has to say about it, "part of a natural progression to make your riding more efficient and less tiring." And those are very important words for a century ride, efficient and tiring. It's a must for this event, so next weekend or maybe this week, I will make the big purchase!

The rest of the day was not a loss either. I figured with 47 miles done for the day, I would be a total drag. Not the case, after 1 coconut water, 1 chocolate milk, 1 banana, 1 water, 7 fruit slice candies, trail mix, and a 2 hour nap on the way to New York - I was a party animal!