JBlog

Wasn’t much of a fight for most of the ride. It was a pretty casual pace until somewhere between St. Joseph and Urbana on the return trip. Somewhere around Tipton, Luke decided to pull out and drag the pack of about 12 riders back to town. My relative inexperience caused me to fall off the back as I dealt with freshly mowed grass clippings on the road and tiring legs. I tried to get on the back of the pack but they were too far ahead.

Kelly, Dan and I were the first to be dropped. Kelly really didn’t stand a chance but Dan gave it a valiant effort and passed me once, getting probably 20 feet ahead, but then I dug down and dropped him in pursuit of the pack. I think the aerobars help quite a bit as it took the pack longer than usual to disappear over the horizon. Squirrelly Klein guy got dropped by the pack, too, and I blew by him about two miles after I got dropped, putting quite a bit of distance between us.

epon and another Wild Card rider were visible and it appeared I was making up some distance between us. Really threw down a lot of effort trying to catch up and I think I probably got to within 200 yards at one point, but they’re both pretty strong riders and eventually outlasted me. Any chance of catching up to them was gone after a good two minute wait to cross Rt. 130 coming back into Urbana. They never completely faded from my view and the big hill leading down toward Lincoln Ave helped me close the gap slightly, but I never did catch up to them. Got stopped at a traffic light as I crossed Rt. 45 and really let up after that, coasting back toward Burwash Park.

Apparently, Squirrelly Klein guy never gave up, because shortly after I got on to Regent Drive, he passed me in a tornado of last-ditch effort to get to the park before me. Well, I couldn’t have that, so I popped up a few gears, stood on the pedals and coasted by him with relatively little effort. epon was just emerging from the park for his ride home, so we rode together for a mile or so until I turned off on Galen Drive to head North.

All in all it was a nice, relatively relaxing ride, and the end of it gave me an opportunity to put in some strong solo efforts, so I was pleased even though my average speed was pretty disappointing.

No chest pains at all, which was a relief, because I did put in some pretty significant sustained efforts on the return trip.

52 miles at 20 mph.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12082075

This morning’s ride started with around 15 riders, including a few who are racing tomorrow and dropped at the turnoff from Mahomet to Fisher.  Climbed some tough hills and fought headwinds that were almost straight out of the North at 10-15 mph.  Did some decent work up front, but tried to keep it to 2:00 or less per pull.  I nearly got dropped as we went over Rt 150 on Lake of the Woods Road but was able to do some work to get back on to the last slot in the left pace line.  I spent most of the trip to Fisher in the left pace line.

Outside of Fisher, right when the sprint began, my extra water bottle went flying out of my jersey.  Second bottle incident in the past two rides for me.  epon suggested that a smoother pedal stroke may help avoid bottle slippage.  I tend to agree, but also the fact that I was in the aero bars may have had something to do with it.

Once in Fisher, we took an extended break at the Casey’s and when we were finally ready to depart there was one bike left sitting against the wall.  Hmm … dilemma … do I leave the bike sitting there unattended and risk not being able to catch up or do I wait for its owner to get back to it.  I can’t imagine how I’d feel if someone made off with my steed so I decided to wait and was unable to catch up with the rest of the group.  That turned out to be just fine as it gave me an opportunity to do some extended solo work with the aero bars.  I’m really starting to like riding with them – not only because of the increased aerodynamics, but because it’s a totally different position to get into.  Laying out flat, or relatively flat, across the bike takes a lot of stress off the wrists and shoulders, which are two areas that always seem to fatigue on me.

I worked on some intervals on the way back, too, and wound up with some mild chest pain about halfway home.  It’s still lingering a bit, but not nearly as bad as it was a few weeks ago.  It seems as if the reduction in the Coreg intake is helping some with that.  I also wonder if it might be possible to move away from it altogether.  There’s probably only one way to find out if it’s safe for me to be off of the medication, and that’s to stop taking it.  If I start having palpitations again I can always go back on it.  It took several years for the arrhythmia to take its toll on my heart.  I think a few weeks or less – if it comes back without the Coreg – would be worth the risk to see if it’s time to stop taking the stuff.  I really hope so.  Whenever I can get in to see the new electrophysiologist at Carle I’ll bring it up to see what he has to say.

Hammerfest this week took a group of about 16 riders out to the east side of Homer, through Sidney and back in across the south side of Champaign.  Stuck with the group until shortly before Sidney when I got dropped after a very short turn at the front of the pack.  Had some slight chest pains toward the end of the ride but I eased up a bit and they went away.

It was the virgin voyage with the new Profile Design Aerolite aerobars installed.  I didn’t use them much, but I think they’ll help for extended solo rides, especially with the aero helmet.  I found that pulling back slightly on the end of the bars forces my elbows down into the pads a little and gives some extra leverage for pedaling.  It’s going to take some practice.

I broke off from a very small group of riders on the return home and went up Neil Street a couple miles before turning on Burwash.  About halfway between Old Church and Burwash, three kids in a brown pickup truck crept over onto the shoulder of Rt 45 right beside me and revved its engine, causing a loud engine yell and billowing black smoke.  I’m sure they were disappointed at my reaction – or lack thereof.