On My Rides

I have been lucky that it is a cold summer. For one thing the electricity use, to air condition the house is near zero. For another I do not need nearly as much water on the long rides as I would if this summer was hot. Sunday July 13 I rode out to Thickson Road, the very spot where Erin and I went down last summer, Erin had just been built only eight days earlier when I crashed so Thickson road will always be a hated road in my books.

I was in good form at the start of the ride, truth was, I was on fire. I wasn't setting the pace, a good portion of the time I was too fast and simply making my own pace with periodic episodes of stop and wait. Of course that all changed at Thickson. Fear does horrible things to your speed, now my crash last year was the result of the guy in front of me slamming on the breaks and as Thickson is a narrow busy road with cars on the left and a gravel shoulder on the right I had a choice, to go down or go down and take someone with me. I did the decent thing, I turned onto the shoulder and as I expected went down, but I went done alone.

This time I was determined not to fall, I did what was required to ensure that a fall would not happen, I rode alone. Of course this meant that much of the ride, the entire return journey, I was alone, as I had waved the guys off.

Riding alone made me realize something, I need to be pushed harder. I have to wonder, if I rode with a group that was tolerant of dropping people what would happen. In theory dropping is not supposed to occur on BCC rides, except that it happens all the damned time. I know because when I was weaker I was the guy being dropped every few miles. Worst of all, I was not being dropped on a sunny Sunday morning on some side road near New Market, although that happened too, but rather the drops that I hated were at night on major roads in the city. At least there is safety in numbers but at night, there are areas of the city I just don't like to ride through, and the absence of adequate street lighting coupled with the knowledge that my bike lights are punny compared to a car lights really makes riding in a pack critical. Well being dropped after sunset in the city is an awful idea, and it happened to me more times than I cared to count.

I bring this up because unless I go at some other person's tempo I'm up a creek. I have been critiqued for letting loose on all engines and I have been dropped for going too slow. I suppose it is a natural predicament of a large group ride, but it is starting to get really annoying. (To say nothing of hypocritical, some of the guys who used to drop me now criticize me for going too fast.)

All of this reminds me of the time I rode with some friends out to Harriston. One had just broken his ankle, I figured it would be my job to do a disproportionate amount of pulling, did I learn a thing or too about how weak I was that day. I recall from Mr. Broken Ankle: "no offense but I think you are bonking", no offense taken, I was bonking, pretty damn badly. The two of them dropped me a couple times, I just was not (am not?) as strong as they are. Periodically they would stop for water or whatever else and that was where I would catch up. I do not believe I ever once complained that they were going to fast, if I had any complaining to do it was over my own lack of preparation, I should not have bonked, that is preventable, and I should be stronger, that is happening through training.

Here is a thought, I recently suggested that there should be some time spent covering sport nutrition for a bike club. Boy did that go over like a lead balloon. I don't get it, I fucked up, pretty badly, more than once. Learn from my mistakes! Why does everyone need to learn through bonking that nutrition matters? The scary part, I was lucky, more than once, I could have gone into one of dehydration or worse, hyper-hydration, a little known killer that results from drinking too much water. Nutrition is important for anyone, but athletes in particular, if for no other reason then if you get it wrong you can die from your mistakes. Of course more likely you just won't perform as well as you could if you did nutrition right. But risk dying for a worthy cause, not for a morning ride.

I need to find a way to better myself without being reprimanded in the effort.