The weather Sunday was awesome. I was down in town about 8 am and looking forward to another ride down the rode. I wanted to push a little harder today, I'm still working off the energy from last Sundays Tri.
Mark and Mary showed up by 8:30am. Mark is quite the cyclist and I have only been with him on one ride so far. He is a tall 6-2 or so and has those long legs for running and cycling. I wasn't sure how fast he wanted to ride but I found out pretty quickly after we left.
We left Mary to ride by herself and planned on going out about 15 miles or so. I needed to be back in town reasonable early. Marc quickly took the lead and pushed the pace to around 22-23 mph. I wasn't even warmed up yet. I tucked in behind him and paced myself well. I pulled in front for a while with him drafting on me. His height makes it harder on him to draft off of my bike - worse yet is that I am on 650's and he is on 700's, that puts him up another couple inches.
I noticed that my bike was considerably faster that his road bike on downhills and straights at the same pedal stroke.
We turned at the 16 mile mark and headed back. There was a slight headwind and we worked harder on the way back to town. The hills really burned on the way back - but that could be because we we pushing so hard. My quads were toast by the time the last hill came up.
All in all the ride was pretty awesome. It was nice to have someone to push with. I have been training by myself for too long and really enjoy getting my butt wooped once and awhile. |
