Sunday ride...

I'm a little late posting this one. I've been strangely busy at work.

I met Bill Strickland, Brad Ford, and Vegan Rob at SMC for a warm up ride out to The Velodrome to ride the Derby. As usual I was rushing around to get there on time, and still have enough time to have a double espresso.

We left the shop at 9:15am and headed west toward the Velodrome. We made great time heading out there - roughly 32 minutes. We kept a nice pace on the way out of 15.5 avg. I have to thank Bill & Brad for getting me hooked on riding to the Derby, it's really a great way to add an hour or so to the ride. I may actually try to ride there from my house soon.

Roughtly 9.5 miles later we are circling the Velodrome parking lot waiting for Paul "The Animal" Pearson to "caw" the ride and lead us out. About 4o or so riders showed, some I've ridden with before and a lot I don't know - but was told there are quite a few pros on this ride.

As we rode through some of the newer developments near the Velodrome, everyone started to warm up and the pace started picking up - although very comfortable until the turn. Although the turn onto Fleetwood/Lyons road the pace picks up quickly. After I got dropped off the group twice at Weaver's and Deka Battery, I was pretty tired. I was able to get my second wind and catch some of the group to get back to the start a few minutes after everyone was cooling down - at least they were still there :)

The same group headed back to SMC along with Pearson and Steve. I was happy to return for more coffee and a muffin. I had a good ride and really feel that riding with the very talented people is going to really help my riding in the future.

Boring details for the numbers freaks (like myself)

Ride Time: 2:46:47
Mileage: 50.58 miles
Totl Ascent: 2067 feet
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph (20 mph avg just for the derby - which is the fasted I've averaged)
Avg HR: 161 bpm
Max HR: 193 bpm (that's the highest I've seen in awhile)

-matt