That's better...

Last week I wrote "A humbling ride" (in the wrong NG, but
we'll ignore that for now <GGG>). This week the NBW had
another ride, slightly shorter than last weeks, and I wanted
to see if my lessons learned helped at all.

The ride was scheduled for 27 miles on the longest loop, and
I rode the
6.5 miles to and from the ride as well, giving me about 40
for the day. I took it real easy on the way there, and
didn't try to stay with the fast group heading out on the
ride. Instead, I held back a bit, riding with the touring
crowd until I could see how I felt. I felt pretty good, so
after about 5 miles or so I picked it up just a bit,
bridging up to a slightly faster group and pretty much
stayed with them the rest of the way.

The weather had been predicted to be 45 and sunny, but it
ended up being more like 36 and cloudy, so I kept my fleece
jacket on the whole way. Not very aero, but it kept me from
having to burn extra energy just to stay warm. I set the
interval timer on my bike computer to 20 minutes as a
reminder to drink some of my gatorade, to ensure I kept up
with my carbo's and hydration. I mix the gatorade about half
strength from powder because I find that full strength has
too much salt and makes me thirsty.

If you remember my post from last week, I had donated 2
units of red cells just 5 days before that ride, and had a
cold. Today I was completely over the cold, and had had more
time to recover from the blood donation. That, plus keeping
myself on a hydration schedule seemed to make a huge
difference. This route was much more hilly with about the
same wind, as well as being colder, but I still finished
with a faster average time than I did last time. I felt
strong the whole way, and though I was tired when I
finished, it was a good tired, feeling like it should after
a good workout. I didn't bonk, and was able to keep up with
a fairly fast group.

At the end of the ride I showed 33 miles at an average of
15.6 mph, which included a slow easy spin to the start of
the ride. By the time I got home, I had 40 miles at 14.9
mph. I'm guessing I averaged about 16 mph during the 27
miles of the organized part of the ride, even with the
hills. BTW, those hills included one which runs along the
side of a ski area (the only one in the state, actually) and
which had me standing hard in my 30x23 granny (and on which
I threw my chain when shifting into the 30 ring part way up,
so I've got to check the adjustment of my front der).

The moral of the story: don't expect to perform well in
endurance sports just after donating blood when riding with
a cold; you can ride, but don't expect to perform at your
normal level. And while out there, keep hydrated and fueled.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return
address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.