Wednesday Trail Ride

Wednesday evening I met Rock and Gary at the River Trail. They had already biked probably 10 miles by the time I got there meeting up with them at the dog park. We headed out over the Big Dam Bridge at a fast pace, then decided we would tackle Overlook.

Overlook is a pretty good hill, or actually a mountain. I goes up just before you get to Murray Lock and Dam. I will have to say it was much easier than last weekends Iron Mountain. I was able to sit and pedal almost all the way up. It was in the low 90's so I was just a little winded by the time we hit the top but nothing in comparison to last weekend. I think I can do almost any hill now after that.

Afterwards we came down the hill very carefully and not as fast as we could have. I held my brakes almost all the way down, partly because Gary mentioned to be extra careful towards the bottom as there was a bad bump. When we got to the bottom we rode down Rebseman towards Cantrell. Gary led and I think he started hammering. Rock took 2nd position and I hung on. We were going about 19-20 for a little ways when Rock fell off Gary's wheel. I went around her trying to close the gap and I did, latching on and hanging on for the ride. We were flying at that point. Gary was on fire, we were doing 20-22 at times but I was right there. I stayed within inches until we made the slight turn on the four lane that runs to Cantrell. Just a couple seconds delay at the turn and I lost Gary's wheel and I was dropped. Oh well. It seemed much harder the rest of the way. It's amazing how much the draft makes a difference in effort. We had also dropped Rock but we were soon all back together after the turn around.

We had a little bit of a tail wind on the way back and we were really flying. 22mph seemed almost effortless. Gary slowed a little so I passed and started pulling for a while. I kept us around 19 for about a mile or so until I could feel the fatigue of pulling a pace line starting to take over me. I pulled out and Gary took the lead again. As luck has it, I fell back too much and I was dropped but not far. Another rider wearing a team uniform rides up next to me and motions for me to get on his wheel and I did. He pulled me for about 1/2 a mile till we caught up enough then he motioned for me to get on Rock's wheel and I did. That was pretty nice of him to help me out!

The bridge was almost effortless, I think I was going 10-12mph up. Last year I could barely crawl up it on the bike. We headed back towards Little Rock where Gary and Rock were parked. Gary continued to hammer, so I just hammered too and stayed right with him. He was so strong and fast but this was good training for me. We dropped Rock just past the wooden bridge, then we slowed at the Skate Park to let her catch back up. Gary took off again and I stayed with him. We were doing about 20-21 down River Road all the way back.

After they got to their cars I headed back to the Dog Park. I didn't ride quite as hard but still pushed it a little, maintaining 18-19mph most of the way. I ended up with right at 25 miles for the evening with one good hill repeat and a good fast ride for the rest. I burnt just over 1600 calories for less than a 2 hour effort. Not bad!