TT - Training Time!

I ride all year. I promised myself that when I grew stronger, I would never let myself lose that strength. One would think that after completing not one, not two, but three centuries in 2009, the last one being in October, that strength had come to rest in my body for good.

Not so.

At 48 years old, one can't take anything for granted, least of all the strength one accumulates from training hard, long and frequently.

So having taken the easy paths in November and December, here I find myself once again staring down the next century with trepidation and doubt.

In the next twelve weeks, I will be blogging about my training in preparation for the bike MS: Round-Up Ride held in Florence, Arizona. I will speak about my training successes, failures, nutrition, routes, scenery, pals, training rides, and anything else I learn about or find worthy of passing on.

I hope you will comment, leave feedback, add two-cents or more as you see fit.

This past weekend, I decided to ride with a new group. When starting out, riding with a group was painfully frightening for me. Will I be able to keep up? What if I fall behind? What if I can't clip in at a red light? What if I bonk? What if someone shoves me and I fall? and on and on ad nauseum. I joined this beginner group to meet some folks and to just get back on the bike after a week of not riding. I recruited my friend, Peggy, to ride with me. She is someone I drag along on my exploits and she's a great sport. We met with the group of about 12 and although I glanced at the route, I didn't know it by heart. It was short and flat so I wasn't worried about staying with the group. Arizona's sun has decided it would shine this day after hiding much of the last previous week so the weather was a perfect 70 degrees. We took off from a store in Gilbert called Global Bikes and rode in a group for the entire 20+ miles.

As always there are people who amaze me. This ride was no different. In front of me was a young boy of no more than 10 years old. He was on a Giant road bike and had full gear, including Look clipless pedals. Because it was a beginner ride, I expected we wouldn't be travelling any faster than about 13 but after the mid-point, the leader took off a little faster to average about 14 or 15 mph. This young man kept up without a hitch. He used all of the proper hand signals, was good at maintaining his pace without lunging forward or dropping back and was an overall awesome example of a strong beginner cyclist.

As usual, I had issues. If it's not one thing with me, it's another and this time, it was my chain. I had remembered to clean my chain as I had learned from Mike Cox at a recent clinic, but forgot to lube it afterwards. So, my chain slipped and I had to stop to put it back on. It was then that I met Ladonna, a woman beginner cyclist who looked at me with wide eyes to ask what happened to my bike when I stopped. After catching back up to the group, I explained my chain had fallen off. "And, you know how to fix that?" She asked with amazement? There was certainly a time that I would have thought my ride was over with this tiny act. Thankfully, most times, I can get it back on without stopping. This time, however, I had to maually put it back on.

Later on, we talked about changing tires, chains falling off, missing clip screws etc. Thank goodness shops like Global Bikes hold organized clinics to teach newbies these things. They are essential to feel independent, capable and competent during solo rides or rides with groups of any size.

It is doubtful that I will be on a slow, small ride like this in a group again soon as I will be ramping up my miles. But I sure am grateful for patient ride leaders such as Chris on this ride who really help new riders gain that confidence needed to move forward.

Until next ride...
TTY
Tailwinds to you...