Yesterday's ride ended up being a fabulous one. But, I was cursing my bike, the roads, the weather, my stupid slow legs, and everything else not too far into the ride. A group of about 12 of us set out for a ride Sunday morning in Brookshire. We rode this route which was basically a 17.5 mile stretch of one road, heading south out of the Brookwood Community Center. Most of us had a goal of at least 2 loops, and some of the group were aiming for 3 loops to do their first century. Two loops was 70 miles and I had told myself earlier that I'd like to aim for 75 miles for the day.
I was the slowest person there, but knew that would proably be the case heading into the ride. I really don't enjoy riding by myself and always being the last one. So when less than 4 miles into the ride I found myself completely alone, I was again upset. I started to dread the thought of riding every mile over the next 10 weeks completely by myself, thinking this wasn't what I signed up for. Then, slowly but surely, things started to look up for me. Since it was an out and back, I could see my friends close to each of the turn arounds and I suddendly did not feel so alone. I perked up a bit and had one stupid song in my head over and over, but for some reason it did the trick. I became okay with being alone and started to just enjoy the ride and to get excited about the ironman. After a while, I knew I wasn't too far behind the group so I stopped feeling sorry for myself for being the slowest one. Everyone says you are supposed to ride with faster people to get faster, but I'm not sure they mean when everyone is miles ahead of you. It did work though. By the end of my second loop (70 miles), I felt great and decided to go back out for 5 more miles to get my goal of 75 for the day.
All in all, I averaged 16.8 mph for the 75 mile route which I am just estatic about. That may sound beyond slow to most of you, but it is something to me. I averaged 14.65 mph at IMAZ last year and 16.5 at Ironstar this year. I would love to shave some time off my bike split this time around and it is starting to look like I might actually be able to take a little bit off. Even averaging 15.5 at IMAZ would be huge to me. I know a lot depends on the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances, but if everything goes well, hopefully I am on the right track for improvement.
For comparison, this was the first weekend I rode my bike outside last year in preparation for IMAZ. I rode 46 miles at a 13.3 mph average (granted that was a MS150 ride and that was my garmin average, so it included the fun rest stops, but the 16.8 from yesterday was from my garmin too, with my 1 pit stop included). So, I can at least be assured by the fact that I am way further along in my training at this point this year than I was at this time last year.
So yesterday ended on a good note - on the manic side of the bipolar world of Ironman. I'm as excited as ever and proud of myself for turning my attitude around early enough yesterday to appreciate a great ride.
I think I was also able to make the best of a pretty crappy situation I've been in recently and might end up really being rewarded for that as well. Go me.
I was the slowest person there, but knew that would proably be the case heading into the ride. I really don't enjoy riding by myself and always being the last one. So when less than 4 miles into the ride I found myself completely alone, I was again upset. I started to dread the thought of riding every mile over the next 10 weeks completely by myself, thinking this wasn't what I signed up for. Then, slowly but surely, things started to look up for me. Since it was an out and back, I could see my friends close to each of the turn arounds and I suddendly did not feel so alone. I perked up a bit and had one stupid song in my head over and over, but for some reason it did the trick. I became okay with being alone and started to just enjoy the ride and to get excited about the ironman. After a while, I knew I wasn't too far behind the group so I stopped feeling sorry for myself for being the slowest one. Everyone says you are supposed to ride with faster people to get faster, but I'm not sure they mean when everyone is miles ahead of you. It did work though. By the end of my second loop (70 miles), I felt great and decided to go back out for 5 more miles to get my goal of 75 for the day.
All in all, I averaged 16.8 mph for the 75 mile route which I am just estatic about. That may sound beyond slow to most of you, but it is something to me. I averaged 14.65 mph at IMAZ last year and 16.5 at Ironstar this year. I would love to shave some time off my bike split this time around and it is starting to look like I might actually be able to take a little bit off. Even averaging 15.5 at IMAZ would be huge to me. I know a lot depends on the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances, but if everything goes well, hopefully I am on the right track for improvement.
For comparison, this was the first weekend I rode my bike outside last year in preparation for IMAZ. I rode 46 miles at a 13.3 mph average (granted that was a MS150 ride and that was my garmin average, so it included the fun rest stops, but the 16.8 from yesterday was from my garmin too, with my 1 pit stop included). So, I can at least be assured by the fact that I am way further along in my training at this point this year than I was at this time last year.
So yesterday ended on a good note - on the manic side of the bipolar world of Ironman. I'm as excited as ever and proud of myself for turning my attitude around early enough yesterday to appreciate a great ride.
I think I was also able to make the best of a pretty crappy situation I've been in recently and might end up really being rewarded for that as well. Go me.
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