off the back again

i made it back. that's about all the good i can say about my ride with the oz bicycle club tonight. i did okay on the way out, but i could tell that i wasn't at 100% even before the mad acceleration i knew would come. i was too close to my redline. i hardly pulled at all and still i felt on the edge.

we took a slightly different route tonight, turning south where we had gone east previously. that meant more straight into the wind riding. even in the draft, that was uncomfortable.

when we turned around - i think it was at 95th - the race was on. i was actually able to bridge back up to the lead group after my u-turn, but the effort did me in. i didn't have a heart rate monitor on, but i'd say my ticker was ticking away at near 180bpm. that's my bonk line and i bonked. i was in the pack, but barely hanging on and we were only doing about 23mph. fairly easy for this group. i couldn't get my systems back under control. i tried valiantly to stay on the wheel in front of me, but the pain won and i peeled off.

thankfully, scott, a guy i've talked to just about every week, peeled off too. he was hurting as much as i was. so we sat up and enjoyed the long ride back to minneha school together. we were pretty slow for awhile while we waited for our second wind. it came, but not very quickly. we picked up the pace about three miles out and made it in tired, but okay.

i won't be back with this group again for a few weeks. i'll miss the speed. i'll miss the pain. i'll miss being dropped. well, i'll miss the speed anyway. (37.79 miles @ 18.9mph)