Big Cycle Week - Big Fun

Well it is Sunday night and I have had a good week but I am well and truly ready for a good nights sleep.

The week started with the Cherry Blossom 10 miler on a miserable, cold, soaking wet Sunday and finished with another cold overcast Sunday. In between, the weather has been wonderful getting up into the 80's. I have been sun burnt twice this week and yesterdays run left me a sweaty mess.

I have only done a little swimming this week and after Sundays race my runs have been around 75 mins long and pretty uneventful. The highlight of this week has undoubtedly been cycling. I have gone into Tuesdays group ride in some detail but on Thursday I tried to repeat the roadie group ride experience. This time I joined the lunch time group ride around Hains Point in downtown D.C.. Hains Point is a wonderful ride. Named after Major General Peter Conover Hains, this spit of land has a fantastic 3.4 mile flat tarmacked road that runs around its circumference and is therefore a very popular spot for local cyclists. There is a group ride leaving from the golf club every lunch time at 12:05.

Apparently Tue, Wed and Thu tend to be the faster days with Mon and Fri being a little more relaxed in light of the weekends racing. I left work at 11:45 and headed down to Hains Point. When I go there at 11:55 there was no one around. I started to think that the ride was off because of all the traffic there to view the Cherry Blossom. I did one loop of Hains Point thinking that I would go off for a solo ride but then I started to see other riders coming in the other direction. I turned around to join them and headed around Hains Point in the wrong direction until low and behold a peleton appeared. I tagged on the back and the first lap was very genteel as everyone warmed up. The weather that day was absolutely glorious, very warm and sunny. After the first lap the pace started to really pick up and again I began to struggle.

As the group got separated by traffic I saw the faster guys begin to disappear. Everyone seemed happy to watch them go but I decided I was going to close the gap. I launched myself off the front and rapidly started to close them down but .... I only made it 4/5 of the way across the gap before my legs gave up, oh well I was close and I am sure I will only get stronger. I fell in with another group and had a very enjoyable 40min cycling fairly hard in the sunshine before going back to work.

As I already had my bike and cycle gear with me I decided to go to the gym at work to do my weights session before going back out to Hain's Point again to join the Team Z group ride. It was a perfect evening and although I didn't do any pulling I had another very enjoyable ride.

A great weeks cycling was capped today with a Team Z ride along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. For those who do not know the area, Skyline Drive is a beautiful road that winds its way a 100 miles or so south from Front Royal in Virginia along the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The first 10 miles or so of the ride are all uphill but you are rewarded with the most spectacular views.

About 2600ft and getting cold (don't let the sunnies fool you)

Unfortunately, unlike midweek, the weather again took a turn for the worse. Instead of the 80's we had experienced earlier in the week the temperature was back down to about 47 degrees in the car park before we set off. When everyone rolled out Chris and I cut off to a garage to use the rest room. By the time we got to the entrance to Skyline Drive there was a big queue of cyclists waiting to pay the $8 entrance fee. I eventually got to the front and waved my National Parks card before we started to climb. I tapped out the rhythm and Chris stayed with me while we went up. Chris is a an experienced triathlete and having just turned 60 is in with a great chance for qualifying for Kona this year. When I joined the team last year I would regularly draft off him during the longer rides but now at least I have the ability to do my fair share of pulling.

I do not have particularly low gearing on my road bike so I found it easier to push quite hard on the climb in order to maintain a good cadence rather than go slow and get bogged down with a very slow cadence. Starting at the very back was actually good fun. We got to see other members of the team that we do not often get to speak to on a ride and it is always more motivating going past people than being passed.

Chris Wren, Ed Zerkle (Team Z founder) and Me - 3000ft'ish and bloody freezing

After a little over an hour and half we turned around started the descent. Although it had been overcast all ride it had until that point not rained. Unfortunately as we descended it began to rain. Because we were up at 3000 feet the rain had turned to ice and my face was pebble dashed by hail and ice rain as we flew down at 40mph+.

Back at the car park I grabbed a coffee and started to get the feeling back in my fingers. I could really feel the climbing in my thighs but I had that lovely warm, tired, satisfied feeling that comes after a good hard ride. We passed several of the slower riders on the way back down who all had another couple of hours of cycling ahead of them and in light of the weather I was really impressed by how cheerful everyone was.

So a great week but I also have to mention Derek, a friend of mine back in the UK who has just completed his first marathon, the London Marathon, in a very, very impressive 3.30.