Sunday 2/12 - Tough, but not a Sufferfest

When I woke up this morning, my phone informed me that it was 19 out.  Winter finally decided to chill us out a little bit.  That said, it's Sunday, and that means Church and then a bike ride in the afternoon.  I got to the meeting spot a little before 3, and a grand total of 2 other people showed up.  This was both a good thing and a bad thing, as the two folks that showed up I had riden with before (thus I knew they were strong riders), but I also knew they wouldn't just leave me sucking wind trying to catch up.  It was cold, and a bit windy, but it was a really good ride.

From the statistics over at Strava, I averaged a better pace and kept my heart rate down better than last week.  The other side that you will see is that all of the Personal Records I accomplished last week still stand, but I was in second place for all of the same segments.  What I'm taking away from that is that while I didn't put forth the monstrous effort on the known segments today, in the places in between I was able to properly rest and efficiently climb and use my energy instead of just trying to hang on for dear life on the group last week.  



I also think that I will start seeing a lot of benefit from going to the cycle class as well as the gym in general in the coming weeks, where efforts like last week start to wane and I have more realistic challenges on this particular ride.  I've lost about 12lbs so far on this journey, and while I still have around 40lbs more to go before I get near my "goal" weight, I hope that I'll start seeing the benefits of the lighter me in my ability to manage some of these routes.  I cannot imagine strapping another 12lbs onto my stomach and attempting to ride!



One of the things I'm most proud of is the 2nd place in the Scuffletown Sprint Zone.  This is a stretch where I have tended to hang on with the group for dear life, and a place where I really challenge myself.  Today it was  just 3 of us, and that typically means a slower pace than when it's a group of 10 or 12.  That said, we all took turns pulling through the Sprint Zone, and as such I came out with a really strong score.  I was really  happy that in the section where I managed to pull I was able to push the speed up to almost 30mph and really give John a good shot to finish strong.