Thursday is the fast group ride. I was glad Keith had participated in EPIC DAY. Maybe he would experience some of the ‘dead leg’ syndrome that I know so well. With the days getting longer, we met at Jackson Station at 5:45AM. Everyone was on time and ready to hit the trace. We all got together and lied about taking it easy for the day.
That lasted for 13 nanoseconds and then Keith decided to push the pace and took off. JD jumped on his wheel with Lance right behind him. I was caught off guard and jumped out of the saddle to latch onto Lance. There would not be a much conversation during this ride. Although it is unorganized we all try to pull for as long as possible while maintaining speed – trying to best our previous time.
The morning air was been dense all week and, being in Southern Mississippi, will remain that way in perpetuum. Within a few short minutes my jersey and shorts were damp and on their way to be soaked. We hit the Sumrall turn around at 29 1/2 minutes. We will negative split this out and back – we just have to get up the 1 ½ mile hill out of Sumrall. I turned around quick and headed out while standing out of the saddle. I sometimes like to use this hill for some strength work. Soon Lance powered by my in full aero position with JD and Keith right on his heels. I slipped in behind Keith. Lance dragged us up the hill on cruise control at 20 MPH.
We continued home at a fast clip – there was some fatigue starting to show – we may have started out a little too quick. I actually had a couple of good pulls coming back. About 2 miles from the finish (the Eiffel Tower in site) we had a closer than I would have liked call with some traffic. The street that I live off of has a blind crossing to the north. We always slow way down and there is almost never any cars, especially in the mornings. I guess, by leaving early, we had timed it just right for a school bus. We all shed our speed instantly as the bus came to a stop. We caught our breath but we were not done yet. I jumped back up to full speed and was pulling hard. I pulled for about a mile and did not think that anyone had come with me – I yielded to the left and Lance and Keith screamed by. I grabbed the wheel and we were instantly home. We finished our 22 mile out-and –back in 58:04 a 22 .7 MPH blast. This is only our third ride this season and we keep breaking out previous best. We are going to have to get organized to continue besting the times.
We cooled off for just a few minutes and Keith and I were going to run a quick brick. I am a bit faster than Keith and I thought this would be a social run for me. Keith, instead, decided to run it out hard. The two miles ended up with mile 1 at 7:28 (not bad) and mile 2 at 7:04. I really think if I can get the mental portion down I can have some fast runs in some of these shorter races.
My workout plan did not have anything else for the day so I decided to do some more breath control in the pool. Not a hard workout but good skills to build. I did 5 x 200 yards breathing every third stroke bilaterally again. It is not second nature but it was easier than the last time – progress is being made! I finished off with a 500 yard set swimming normally – just easy gliding. Went up stairs and did some weights.
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