Tuesday night is group ride night with my team. I was really hoping to meet up with them last night, but the weather was pretty suspect with some dark clouds and light drizzle. The ride was happening all the way in Cochrane and I had no idea what the weather was doing out there so I decided to throw my bike in the back of my car and drive out there to see if anyone else came. It turns out that four of us were there to brave the elements. Two of the folks just finished Ironman Canada, the third is signed up for next year.
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It was probably about 6 or 7 deg C so I had on a short sleeve shirt, long sleeve top, bike shorts, tights, a jacket, wool socks, bike gloves and long gloves over them. I was layered up I tell you! We started off riding and I felt pretty comfortable. It was really windy though, and we were riding straight into the 20 km/h winds. The hills were pretty rolly but it definitely felt uphill more than downhill. I lost the group on one of the climbs, then my bike started having issues shifting into the big chain ring so it was hard to catch up on the downhills and flats. We were riding to the stop sign on the road and I started to wonder where on earth this stop sign was! After climbing a big hill I finally saw it, and everyone was waiting at the sign for me. We turned around and had the wind pushing us along and plenty of downhill. It felt glorious! I rode with one guy the entire way back and we talked about what got us into triathlons and he told me about his great experiences with coach and how great of a team it was to work with. When we hit the uphills my legs were spent but I really just wanted to push hard and ride hard and not drop off to ride on my own again. When we got back to our cars my legs were a bit shaky from riding so hard (and I probably should have scarfed a gel before riding too). We made it back just before darkness fell and it never rained a drop on us the entire time. Total distance - 23.33 miles.
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On the way home I blasted the heater in the car to avoid cooling down to much. I was beat and didn't want to bother with cooking at home so I stopped off at my favourite quick food joint, Edo. I bundled up before going outside, but as soon as I got out of the car the cold air hit me and I was shivering cold. I could not stop shivering and shaking while I was waiting for my food to come out and I was getting some really weird looks from one of the couples eating in the restaurant. I promise, I was just shaking because I was so cold, but I'm sure they thought otherwise...
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Anyhow, all in all, a great ride! Too bad those will be few and far between for awhile now!
7 comments:
Only 3 other people showed up and they seemed pretty hardcore!! You're getting hardcore yourself my friend!! Great ride =) I'm glad you're enjoying your team so far!
Way to get out there and do it! It can be really intimidating to do a group ride the first time when you don't know the people or pace. Glad you had fun. Sorry to hear the weather is getting so cold already. Down in FL, the best riding is in the winter :-)
Joining a training team sounds like an awesome idea! Seems like you're fitting right in.
Sounds like a good ride and that's great you're able to push yourself while still enjoying it. On a sidenote, you mentioning the cold weather the past few posts makes me glad I don't still live in Calgary :P
Sadly Alberta gets colder than CT, So any cold weather advice I try to offer would be grossly inadequate...although you can never go wrong with toe warmers...
Sounds like a fun ride. And no rain! Sounds cold up there though.
Great job...sounds like a good ride!!
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