It rained for almost the entire day yesterday. Since it was Thursday, that meant it was time for one of my favorite rides when a group of us get together for what typically turns into a barn-burner. I figured we wouldn’t ride in the rain, but as I got home from work, the rain subsided and things actually started to dry up a bit. Maybe we would ride!

Not wanting to be the one accused of being a wimp, I sent a text message to one of the other members of our group. “Do we have designs to venture forth into the rain?” Chances are, if we did start out dry, we would end up wet before the night ended. No response as the clock neared 6PM – our scheduled departure time.

Well, I didn’t want to get a phone call, “Hey! Where are you? We’re getting ready to go!” So, I suited up, loaded my bike in the car, and then headed to the rendezvous. I wasn’t going to be ribbed for letting a little dampness keep me from the ride.

The parking lot was empty. Now what to do. I was all dressed up with no where to go. However, I really needed to ride. I needed the exercise, but more than that… I needed to work some things out of my head by turning my pedals.

I turned my car to Cleveland Park. I figured if a gully washer came I would be closer to my car doing laps in the park. As I neared the park I found the roads were pretty much dry. This might not be so bad.

As I was turning into the parking area, I saw a lone rider coming down the road. It appeared to be a red kit. As I was finding a parking place I noticed the rider was on a black Giant. Yep, it was a POA Cycling Team rider – my teammate and friend, Matt Tebbetts.

Had I been smart, I would have started riding counter-clockwise. That would have allowed me to meet Matt as he came around. However, I decided to chase him down. He would be my carrot.

As I continued I formulated my plan for the evening. I would do a solid 20 minute effort then give myself a 10 minute break in the middle. I would finish it off with another 20 minute push.

Turns out it took me about that long to catch up to Matt. It was a good 20 minute push – actually, it turned into a 30 minute one. I averaged 290 watts and over 22 mph for the period. Just about that time I came upon Matt pulling into the parking area where my car was. He had seen it and was looking for me.

Unfortunately, Matt was having to leave, so we rode on together for just a couple hundred yards. Then I was on my own again. That was okay. The exertion had gotten my mind and body loose and I was feeling really good. Yes, it was pretty humid and I was dripping sweat, but I’ve always liked feeling that way.

I pushed on for another 20 minutes and then called it a night. It was about 7:30 PM and while the clouds were not thick where I was, I could see that was about to change. Time to get home.

Don’t know if you all can get to this link or not, but here is a page in TrainingPeaks.com that shows the ride. Speaking of TrainingPeaks… today I am the featured membership profile on the TrainingPeaks blog. So, today you get two blog posts for the price of one

 

Tags: Cleveland Park, Matt Tebbetts, TrainingPeaks

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 5:55 am and is filed under Rides, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.