A week ago I almost got a PB on the YVR loop. It was a hot day which makes the air thinner. There was only a little wind. If I had just a bit more motivation I coulda shoulda maybe done a real PB.
Yesterday I tried again. I gave up after just short of halfway as I realized the wind was just too much. I could have kept up the effort, but I knew that it was not going to give me what I wanted or even close. Close being a minute or two over 66 minutes.
The weird thing is two days after that almost PB last week we had a club ride. The “boss” was not there so getting organized and on the way was a bit ragged. The “A”s got away and took off not to be seen for a while. The “b”s were counting and deciding stuff and hell I don’t know what they were doing. So I and my usual suspects in Charlie took off. Eventually the rest, some several dozen followed well back of us.
The first pitch was flat to rolling with nothing big until the hill from Spanish Banks to UBC. I was leading and to my surprise the Bs had joined up with Charlie and I found myself at the front of the whole group. I expected that once at the hill I would fall back into the natural selection by gravity.
As for all hills I just got into my rhythm and waited to be passed by the faster and lighter. One went by. Then another went by then a couple more booted up the road. This is as it should be. Then..... no more passed me. I actually caught and passed one of the people ahead. OK this is strange. To be fair I was not climbing at Charlie speed. I was climbing at my speed. I looked back and saw a long line of riders behind.
They were not pushing mind you they were talking and doing the social thing and simply were involved in that. Hell maybe they liked that I was setting an easy pace. At the top of the hill there is a small pull out with a University directory where I pulled over to let them regroup and to collect Charlie.
Some people had some snacks others had a drink, one or two including me took off jackets as the climb had got us warm. One of the people who passed me was a girl lets call her “T”. She is slender certainly less than half my age and notably fast. I was going to find out how fast. Cycling is strange as there is such a range of body types. I have large legs and can put out big watts for seconds. My long term power is regrettably small. T could surpass my power over an hour and she is about half my size. Its all about lungs and legs.
We agreed that the regrouping was successful and we were all there, so I took off again. The UBC campus is on top of a hill with water on three sides. The loop navigates the perimeter and they there is a glorious long gentle hill down often with a tail wind on S.E. Marine Drive. It can be fast. We come to that hill and I am still in front so I boot it.
I am doing 41 ish kph and again we are stringing out. In a group if you are slower you can hold silly speed as long as you stay in line and slipstream. It is an advanced skill but worth it. A key part is being familiar with the people around you and trusting them. If they do something stupid a lot of pain can happen fast. I am good at it as I succeed in being steady and consistent. As I am heavy and this is downhill I am leading most of the way on the hill.
Last year Mark, who is a lawyer, struggled with cycling. He was fit and an experienced and good runner. He told me then he was frustrated he was not better. I told him it takes time. Your body has to adjust to having wheels. He is no longer frustrated. He blew by me on that hill. He got about 30 meters (100 ish feet) ahead.
I put the hammer down and pulled him back and got on his wheel then came up beside him. He had a huge grin. “This is my hood!” He lives near the campus. He is faster than me now mostly. I could catch him though. Then I noticed I had brought some friends with me. This was a chunk of the “Killer Bs”. That is the faster half of the B group. T was there and between Mark and I pulling we were hitting mid 40s. Towards the end of the hill T went ahead with another girl. She kept up the pace and now it was just Mark, me and a few of the killer Bs. T was fast.
She and her buddy gapped Mark and I. I shouted to Mark; ”you can catch her!”
He looked back at me and said, “no but you can!” Ummm.
We were now going uphill. There are three relatively small hills on Marine Drive I call them 1,2,3. They come one after the other. At my usual speed I do not go fast. But this day I was keeping up. We were climbing at 30 which is crazy for me. Good thing the hills were short.
As an aside I know I have no hope keeping up with a young man. If I can get on their wheel I can hold it, but otherwise bye bye. But there must be a trace of testosterone in my blood still as I do not like being passed by girls. I guess that was enough motivation to want to try to keep up. And weirdly we were able to keep up. We closed the gap then it opened again. We call it yo-yoing. T was kicking us guys hard. The rest of the club was somewhere behind. Two older guys chasing two younger women. Strange dynamics which would be creepy if bikes were not involved. Everyone was grinning this was a lot of fun.
We seem to have dropped everyone else. T was still in front and hauling.
At the end of Marine Drive there is a deke to get to a bridge approach. We waited there for the main group which was along presently. There was another cycling group starting over the bridge just ahead of us. We gave them a bit of a head start and then went too. T was in front again. Crossing the bridge I saw that other group and another and another headed out to Iona. It was going to be crowded.
As we got to the turn I shouted at T to go left rather than right then we could get ahead of that crowd by short cutting. She did and we got around and ahead of most of the mob. This was now a bunch of the fastest of the killer Bees and Mark and I. I was ignoring Charlie as everyone knows the way and this was fun.
We had about 8 people 6 were male and we formed a paceline rotating the lead and pushing hard. T was now on my wheel and I can push hard for seconds and I did about 45 seconds at good pace then rolled off and got on the back of the line. When T got on the front she pulled just as hard as before and we covered a lot of ground.
This was fun. Doing a solid fast paceline run is just about the most fun cycling thing as long as there are no crashes. It can be scary. That makes it a bit more fun actually.
We got to the park at Iona and there were a lot of bikes there. “A” Group was there about to take off and I was greeted with surprise at being there with the Killer Bees. Charlie and the rest of the Bs sauntered in a few minutes later. I waited for them. There were two other clubs as well and many old friends connected.
To be fair this was not supposed to be a fast day, but a long day so sauntering was probably wiser. The rest of the ride was more sedate with the slow Bees and charlie. I ended up around 121km.
After last night I am near to 400 km for mid-August. I may be short of last August last year, but no big deal.
This is fun. It is good when hard physical things are fun.
