Saturday, August 05, 2006

An Ill Omen

True to my goal, I went on a LONG ride today. Also, as part of my plan I rode with the local velo club. The ride with the velo club went really well. It was a lot of fun, and we made really fast time. That was about 48 miles, and we averaged 21 mph. I was even happy that I was able to hang with the faster half on all of the climbs.

Unfortunately, I think that was too fast of a speed for me--even in a paceline. However, I was determined to ride on and make a long ride of it (with a few climbs mixed in).

All in all, I rode 122.5 miles. My moving average was about 17.5 mph, but it took me about 8 hours (including stops). The careful mathematician will discover that my overall average was a paltry 15.3 mph (if I remember correctly). (For those that don't remember, I need to maintain 16.5 mph for LOTOJA. Ugh.)

Even more disappointing: I'm so exhausted. Even now--4 hours later--I can barely move.

I'll give more details of the ride when I have more energy.

3 comments:

Jon said...

For part of the ride, I climbed up Suncrest. (Though, I didn't descend down into the Salt Lake Valley and turn around and come back up the north side.) I was really tired then--my legs were tired--which is why I didn't push myself by going down the other side.

As a side note, every hill I descended that day was against the wind.

Anyway, I think my legs were quite tired, but it was more just the heat and dehydration that got to me. Once again I got a mild sunburn (I need to put sunscreen on as a thick paste, I think) and generally out of energy. Try as I might, I couldn't get my heart rate above 155 for the last twenty miles or so--including some pretty good hills.

Jon said...

Also, today my legs feel fine. I mean, they're a little tired, but not more than usual.

James said...

sounds to me like you bonked. If you couldn't get your HR up, then you were out of energy, period.