As I concluded my ride today, the first thought that came to mind was the familiar sight of Jonathan and Nate shaking their heads whenever the topic of ‘group rides’ arises. My second thought was far more immediate—kicking off my shoes at the door and stepping into the walk-in shower, still clad in my kit and socks. Undoubtedly, this was the only wise decision I made all day.
I had miscalculated the effects of the heat and humidity—87°F with 86% humidity—while settling into a pace that was far too ambitious. Moreover, I neglected to consume an adequate amount of Tailwind, and, in hindsight, I should have depleted my water supply by the time we reached our scheduled pit stop at mile 37. Fortunately, TR was lenient, issuing only two red lights and a yellow light, likely due to my reliance on my watch for data tracking, instead of my glitchy 840. However, because the watch recorded my entire 24-minute pit stop as ride time, the resulting metrics may not accurately reflect my actual performance or stupidity!
Now, a few hours later, I find myself grappling with relentless hamstring cramps, a painful reminder of today’s miscalculations. I have three days to reflect upon my misdeeds and reestablish my man cave now that our visitors flight left this morning.
I feel you. I was recently doing an endurance training ride with a goal of doing 100 miles. I started with a group to be social. When I split off with a few others, they somehow convinced me to do a strava segment. I maxed out my HR in a pace line with them at mile 25 or so… That made the rest of the ride pretty dang tiring and burned more matches than I needed to!
I will say, it was a fun bonding experience and sometimes you really do need to just forget the training plan and push it. I had fun that day and probably would’ve regretted it if I didn’t agree to do the segment. However, I think you just gotta be careful how many of those things you agree too!
Thanks for your reply. Yeah…two of those within 5 weeks was a bit much. I am forced to be outdoors for five more days and my three scheduled rides will be alone! Well, Sunday is a 10 mile TT charity event, no drafting. Being out with dozens of other riders is more fun than 2 hours of watching a graph.
Monday, I’ll be back on my Tacx for the vast majority of my training schedule.
Philip Langford
Forgot to take any water bottles to a 4hr group ride in the sun last weekend, and handed a beer at the end… Did not feel good the next day.
After a winter of almost no group riding (almost all of it indoors), I am mentally exhausted and am finding I need to just ride to enjoy myself. I like to enjoy myself and reap the rewards of training, so group rides are a must (and a blast).