WNW Day 3, I mean, Day 2 report.

I achieved my first goal from 2 weeks ago, but I don't think it had anything to do with me.  We went up the same evil hill to 96th St and the group stayed together due to a blustery North Wind and almost double the group size.  I hung out with them for the first 2 hills, then went way too far into oxygen debt by the 3rd.  I haven't had the feeling of almost throwing up from going so hard in quite a long time.  Other lessons learned on the ride: I need to find which of my old cycling sunglasses work best to shield my eyes from the wind, and if it's ever below 50°, I need to do something about my feet - booties, chem toe warmers - something.  My tootsies were really hurting by the end of the ride.

The reason I didn't make last week's ride was this:

Bike boxes everywhere.  The shop was in need of some help, so I passed on the ride.  There's a bit of a dent in those mountains of bike boxes, but I sure hope the other builders step up and put in work.

I might attempt to join the GSV ride this Saturday, but I'm concerned I'll end up getting lost in Iowa since I know nothing about that area and will probably get dropped again.  Or I may just go on a longer solo ride at my own pace.  Maybe (re)starting out with competitive group rides after not riding at all for the past 2 years is a bad idea?

WNW day 1 report: Goal #1 - don't get dropped on the first hill

The plan was to head out to the Omaha Trace, then return on the same route. We took the shortened route out by climbing the evil hill up to 96th St.  (Here you go Fred) Randell and I used to do hill repeats on that thing before joining the WNW group.  That was when we were in uber shape.  Do hill repeats, THEN go as hard as possible in the group.  Those were the days.

On tonight's ride, I kept up for about half of that hill, then everyone just rode on away from me.  Brady was kind enough to stay behind and pulled me back up to the group on the next down hill, but as soon as the road turned up again, I was off the back.  Damn gravity.  I didn't get a chance to ride with anyone else after that.  Oh well, it was still a great evening for a bike ride.

So I have some work to do.  I almost wanted to join the GSV ride on Saturday, but I'm sure it'd be another repeat of my WNW lameness.  So I'll just go on a solo ride for a couple hours.  I gotta get my body used to riding for a couple hours at a time.

I'll keep showing up to the WNWs and keep getting my butt handed to me.  That's the way it was when I first started out 13 years ago.  I'd show up to the only Wednesday night ride in town - the Bike Masters ride.  I'd keep up with the lead group for about half the ride, then fall off.  Each week, I'd come back and get a little bit further, until I was one of the fast people.  I've hit the restart button, and that's what I'm going to do again.

I'm more than a little concerned.

I've ridden my road bike to and from work the past couple of days.  Last summer I thought about going on a small, easy group ride that Brady posted about.  So I looked at my road bike, which was in pieces, and decided to spend that weekend putting it together instead of riding it, just in case I decided to join some future weekend ride.  It got built up, then hung up for the rest of the year.

I'm going to join the Wednesday night rides this year in hopes of dropping some weight and forcing myself to ride more.  I will try to post up as the leader of the B group, but most likely, at first, I'll be sweeping the course.  The results from the last 2 days of commuting on the roadie does not bode well for the intensity and hills of WNWs.

So here's to hoping I don't make too much of a fool out of myself at tomorrow's ride, aside from the hairy legs and testing the tensile strength of the same jersey and shorts I used to wear as a cat 2 racer, 8 years and 40 pounds ago.