Takin' it up a notch...

Since yesterday's ride sucked so hard, I gave it another go today. It was a group ride, so I wasn't exactly sure how many miles I'd get in. I went a little early to get a few extra miles in before the main ride started.

Despite not getting as many miles in as I wanted, it was a great ride. We started with Carbo, which is the longest trail out there, and the toughest, at least from an aerobic standpoint. It has about 6 climbs spread thru it's 5 mile length. They're not long climbs, but they're more than enough when you're from Florida.

As you can tell from the photo, we had quite the crowd...the faster riders were up front, with the slower riders bringing up the rear. Dave was in the lead, then myself, followed by Pat. Dave has always been damn fast, especially on the straight aways. Well, today I got a good picture of my fitness level compared to others. Dave, as usual was maintaining a good pace on the flats, but on the climbs I was actually overtaking him. Nobody has any idea how good that made me feel. The day got better though.

The next trail on the agenda was Pine Dogs, an easy, fast 2 mile trail. Pat led off this time, with me in tow. Pat is an endurance racer, specializing in solo 12 & 24 hr mtb events. This is where the story gets really cool (at least it's cool to me). Over the next 2 miles I actually kept up with Pat, never letting him get more than 100-150ft ahead of me. The two of us finished a good 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the group.

After one more trail, most of the group said "adios". Pat and I wanted to get some more mileage in. For the next 20 minutes I kept Pat within my sights. While I was feeling the effects of the sustained effort, I can't say that I was close to blowing up, which was a good thing...an excellent thing! In that 20 minutes (I think the exact number was around 21 minutes and change) we did about 6 miles. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 16 mph average for that time frame. I had to recheck that number a couple times.

So, why did I type all this? Well, basically I was extremely happy with myself for hanging in there with an endurance racer, an endurance racer that is a good 5" shorter than me, and at least 40lbs lighter. He's looking for someone to push him, and I need something similar. I think I've found a good training bud.

That's all for now, gotta go see where Hurricane Dennis is gonna hit. It's not looking good right now, but I'm praying for the best.