STP Training Ride in Seattle
As I was in the Puget Sound area over the weekend, I found a hundred mile training ride with the Cascade Cycling Club. They have the biggest club I have ever seen with a full clubhouse and three or four painted box trailers. And a van. I know vans are not what clubs are made of, but it was just kinda cool. It had the makings of a good day. Having arrived there a couple hours early (had to take a super early ferry from across the Sound) I set my alarm and took a nap in the parking lot.
At check-in, there were 85-100 riders of all fitness levels. I am planning for a faster STP in a day so I signed in and opted for the “Orange” group of 18+ mph; a group of 40+ riders led by veteran Lamar Bass. His no nonsense approach to group rides was helpful and I learned a lot from his constant callouts and direction.
One thing I had not experienced in group rides was during taking a pull I was to break off near an upcoming intersection and hold up traffic for the group to slide thru on the turn. It does not take long and since we had such a large group, it only made sense. Obviously, if you’re strong enough to pull; you are strong enough to catch back up. Mr. Bass does however slow the pace slightly for these allowances.
Another paceline technique he used was to gradually pick up the pace leading out of corners. I stood up the first time out of a corner (out of habit) and he directed me to slow up and slowly pick up the pace so the rest of the group could catch up. That too makes sense. Don’t burn out the group with constant accelerations.
Lamar always stayed third in line and took short pulls of 15-20 seconds. He said he didn’t have legs that day. I beg to differ. Judging from his actions, I think that if I asked Lamar what the goal of the ride would be, it would be to ride safe, keep the group together and ride fast.
As an aside, I got a compliment from one of the other riders. He was intent on staying on my wheel thru out most of the ride because he like the way I was riding. I can appreciate this because I’m trying to be more conscious of my technique.
On the other hand, for whatever reason, sometimes I would get behind one particular fellow who would keep standing and squeezing his butt cheeks together. Now, I know it’s mile 70 and we’re starting to get tired, but please know that everytime you do this, your wheel gets shoved violently into my space. What I do is gear up slightly and stand and keep pedaling. No need to stretch the glutes. Pedal for 60-90 seconds and it sort of happens automatically.
I bought bottle cages for the seat post and they worked perfect. No more stuffing bottles into my jersey pockets. I’m all dialed in with fueling as well. I only used one bottle gel + powder mix. The rest water. And I took 3-5 endurolytes an hour.
A lot of the course was on bike trails. Seattle has a great network of trails that I did not know was there. Of particular benefit was that there was a dirt trail parallel to the path for runners and walkers. It worked for us and we were able to ride at speed. There were many intersections with those trail “posts” so we often had to slow to negotiate these poles.
I only cramped once at around mile 60 in the left quad. Be the pain. Become the pain. Don’t get dropped. It’s a lot better to bear down and push 22 mph in the group, than have to try to catch up riding tempo at 25 mph with a sore quad.
One memorable moment was riding thru a busy city intersection and someone yelling out the car window, “Pel-e-ton!!!!” We were quite the sight to see.
We ended up with a 16.7 mph ave and were shorted five miles. Not bad for a hot day on a stop and go route. STP, here we come.
July 3rd, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Very cool Lee, sounded like a fun experience to me. Your writtings always get me amp’d up.