We were 'wheels up' this morning at 8AM at Einstein's. Emily, Teenie, Sam, Linz and I were joined by Debbie S and Mel. You gotta love two team mates like Debbie and Mel that would support us in this Sufferfest.
When I told the crew we were splitting into 2 teams for 4 handicapped points races, Emily had a very stern look on her face. Teenie had already acted rebelliously to the news. The previous week was brutal and these guys were skeptical, at best.
The race over to the base opened up everyone's legs for blast up the shed. We were flying, taking advantage of every possible race tactic we could. Teenie and I, nailed on Linz's wheel, reached the steep pitch past the right turn to Saluda when a large group of more sane riders were there. We were closing very fast as they stayed spread across the road, even when we yelled multiple times, "On your left!" We flew by them like they were going backwards.
It was a close finish at the State Line where we regrouped and Teenie took us through a round of "what did you do right?" We then rode down like 'bats out of hell', pedaling hard and avoiding nasty gravel.
When something is so fun, you gotta do it again! So, we raced up and back down again. At the bottom, we regrouped one last time for the 'race' back to the Hgwy 11 stop sign and then soft pedaled to Einstein's.
When we organized the Master's Nats group some time ago, I was charged with setting up group training. We have trained together often and intensely. Speaking of intensity, an Intensity Factor (IF) of 1.00 means you are riding at a rate that is the max rate you can hold for 1 hour. For 2:20 duration, a VERY hard workout is .80-.89 IF. A race is usually requires a .90-.95 IF to be competitive. Today, my IF was .92. I am really sure my team mate's effort was equal or greater.
Today drew the following comment from me: "You guys are f*%$#^g bad a&%!"
Oh yea, who won the race? We'll have to wait until Bend to find that out..........maybe, no not maybe....likely, all of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment