Thankful for good riding buddies this year.

I am not very good at keeping up with blogs, beause if I have even 2 people read these, they probably find these posts boring.  But I wanted to mention that the few years I have been racing, I usually rode my bike by myself, and the intensity was usually very low.  Group rides are fine, but its important that you don't allow yourself to be limited by the ride that the group is capable of doing.  I have done group rides that were slow and long on days where I should have rode harder for a shorter distance.  There were group rides that treated the ride as a stop and eat tour type ride.  All group rides have their purpose, but its important you match up your rides with your specific needs and goals.  I decided to do that this year, which is something I have never done before. The reasons for not doing many group rides before are many,  maybe I was too slow for some group rides or I was too fast for others.  Here is an example if what I did this year:

Tuesdays:  TNT (Tuesday Night Taco) ride: 37.5+ miles with 2,000 feet of climbing.  This ride started out moderate, but as the season progressed it would reach fast paces. Rides would include Joe Brzuchanski, Mike Simonson, Jason and Cameron Buccellato, and the pace would be as high as a 20 MPH average!

Wednesdays: Ice Ice Baby ride: 36-50 miles (depending on where one starts the ride).  This ride doesn't start until sometime in at the end of September (I think) and goes until Iceman. It's like a mini-race and at times (on the CRT) scared the hell out of me.  But good for an intense "pissing match", I managed to keep up with the "A-Group" on most rodes.

Thursdays: Thursday Nights @LOHS ride, just a slow first lap and an optional second lap.  This ride can be useful as an interval ride, once the "No Drop" lap is done...  I got in good rides with fast guys on this ride, but many more times the rides were slow.  Thats ok, because not every ride can be a hammer-fest.  I did manage to get in good ride with Christian Tanguy on a Thursday morning, he even insisted on a reverse lap. Other good riders that opted for a fast second lap were good guys like Alex and Greg Schultz, Justin Kreger and Kyle MacDermaid.

Saturdays/Sundays: Saturday Imlay City Taco ride, this can be anywhere from a 55 mile ride, to 85 miles.  Depending on the group, the ride usually never got faster than a 16 MPH pace, but on the longer and warmer days, I would throw in a lap at LOHS or Addison Oaks to finish up the ride.  Also included in this group is the Greg Kuhn Hammer rides.  These rides include two track and single track with dirt roads.  I always felt sore the evening following these rides.   Yes I did a few other rides like Bob's Iceman training rides (one of these), and other George Inghram Epic rides and the O2 Exhale ride (awesome pace).   I also did some rides with other riders, thanks to Jason Buccellato for riding with me on a few rides.  One of these rides was so tough I almost puked when I got home.  This could have been a combination of near dehydration and sheer power output with minimal rest.

...looking forward (after Iceman) are the WRCS rides, these are mostly paved road rides, I hope to continue these this year, with an occasional weeknight ride along with the Saturday/Sunday editions of the ride.

The whole point of this post is to point out the usefulness of group rides.  I used these group rides to force myself to commit to either a distance for that day's ride, or a pace that alone I could not have achieved.  As of this writing, I have in over 4,000 miles and looking to at least get in 4,500 miles before the end of the year.

What I learned this year was from conversations on the rides and the rides themselves.  It sometimes makes sense to ride with other riders.  I hope to do more of this next year.

I have my legs back!

Finally after a inactive & miserable winter, I think I have my legs back.  I had a great TNT ride this past Tuesday and just improved my KOM time on the "Dragon Chase" segment at LOHS tonight!

I hope this late start to the season pays off this year...

Last year was a long and tiring season.  It started right after the 2012 Iceman and end at the finish line of the December 8th, 2013 CX race at Addison Oaks.  Then what followed is a first for me in 14 years.  I got the Norovirus around the time of the Oakland County Wrestling Championships (so I missed this), then I got a very bad cold 3 weeks later and this lasted at least 10 days.  After the cold cleared up I had a bad allergy / sinus issue.   Then about a week ago my son and I were wrestling and I believe he either cracked one of my ribs or dislocated it.  So riding has been low on the list of things to do.  I am slowly starting to get back into the old schedule.  I am including some running to help accelerate my fitness and recovery.   I hope to get in a few rides out at Pontiac Lake Rec. Area trail this week.  We will see but I am hoping to do the Pontiac Lake Time Trial and then have my son do the Beginner class race there.