One great thing about a group ride, if it is with the same people all the time is that a person can gauge their performance improvement, or, more cynically, lack thereof. In my case I am pleased to say there has been a significant and very noticeable improvement.
When I started I was pleased to keep up with a middle group for an entire 75km loop. Now, despite being reprimanded, I am still able to do the majority of the pulling on my own for the fastest group. (When I pointed out that I got in trouble for pulling previously the reaction was one of "Oh I don't mind, if you can pull, do it!" I guess the moral here is, some people will complain no matter what, but at least I am not being accused of wheel sucking.)
Anyway I got into a good old fashioned burn out those legs hammerfeasts. I covered a total distance of 120km in just over 4 hours (averaging about 27.5km/h) and burned over 4000 Calories which I promptly re-ate. My heart rate maxed out at 177bpm and while none of these numbers seem impressive I should add here that I started very slow. I thought I was running late so I skipped past the meeting spot taking a more direct route and then slowed down while I waited for the guys to catch up.
All that farting around at the beginning sucked an hour or so right up. But when I thought the hammer was supposed to drop well I guess there was a misunderstanding because after about three to five minutes of giving my 110% I look back and wouldn't you know all the guys are a good thirty or forty seconds back. Slowly they caught backup but I sure did not make their ride easy.
I am pleased, I managed to hold on to the fastests guys and even did quite a pull in more than one place. Even better, many people gave voice to the notion that I have improved, noticeably. Ultimately that positive feedback is what makes doing anything worthwhile.
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