well i turned up at 7.00 am at coode st and a couple of groups had started to form. one group were keen to do the usual pub hol ride route, while myself, dr lisa, lisa w, russell (chevron) & kim started out on the kwinana marathon.
the pace was set at a civil pace by everyone and the guys took turns onthe front. lisa w got a puncture half-way out and i’m not surprised as it was glass city on the pathways.
so around 8.15 or so i waved goodbye and started a solo back as i had to be home by 10.00 am. i was probably cycling for 2 mins when these two guys come flying past me. “great!” i thought so i hopped on and figured i’d get a nice easy tow back home. wrong, wrong wrong.
i said to the second dude “do you mind if i tag on?” as it seemed to be the polite thing to do. he said “no worries” and so i sucked his wheel for the next 45 min or so. these guys were shifting, really shifting. a tad faster than the thurs rides pace and never ending.
i was suffering to just hang on. they were tri-athlon guys judging by the tt bikes and skin kit they were wearing. eventually we parted ways and i headed on north to the narrows. by now i was absolutely roasted good and proper and felt like i had just completed a sunday ride followed by one of vicky’s torture sessions.
i don’t think i’ve stayed in the orange/red for that long before but i think i was determined to stick with it – it would have been a bit humiliating to be dropped after asking if i could hang on. perhaps that’s the key for me, fear of humiliation?
it did make me think about doing longer hard rides close to the red zone. i might revisit that stretch again if only to build up the “red zone stamina”. hopefully that red zone pace will become orange or green…eventually 😉
nice start to the year, but not the type of ride i had in mind when i got up this morning.
ride hard, ride safe