Thursday Group Ride and weekend wrap up.

This past Thursday was the usual group ride. Will picked me up and told me what his plan was for the ride. He told me he was going to attack up the Haynesville hill and see if anyone could catch him. I told him I'd try to go with him, but didn't know if the legs were up to it. Well his plan didn't go the way he wanted it to. On the first short climb on 341 Mark Dufus took off, Will countered the attack and slipped in behind him. The rest of the group picked up the pace a bit hoping they would slow down going into Haynesville, but no such luck. They got a gap going up the hill and it was all I could do to keep up a steady pace on the climb. On the way up the climb, Charles passed me on his cyclo-cross bike. I just kept to my own pace. Once we turned onto Grovania Road, it seemed like Will and Mark had slowed up a bit, we caught onto the back of them, but then I started to get cramps and had to slow down a bit in order to feel better. The group of them went ahead and it seemed like Mark & Will picked up the pace again & no one could stay with them. I manged to catch BK, Shane, & Charles before hitting Elko Road. Once on Elko, I could see Mark & Will ahead, but didn't think I could catch them. I just settled into a good cadence & pace for me. They turned on the loop off Elko and I just kept my same pace. I was caught on the loop by BK, Shane, & Charles, but it was ok. We worked together heading back towards Elko. By the time we reached Elko Road again, it was just Shane and myself. We turned on Elko to head back to the start of the ride. I caught a couple of the other riders who didn't do the extra loop and passed them. I was going at a good pace for me & my legs actually felt pretty good. Near the fairgrounds I caught two more of the group. Once into Perry, I saw Mark and Will, Mark ended up going home but I was going to try my best to catch Will. I caught onto his wheel & he started pulling us towards the finish of the ride. I did my best to hang on, but the pace was a bit too high for me. I told Will to go at his own pace and not worry about me. I finished the ride with an average speed of 20.7 mph. It was the fastest I've done this ride this year. It seems that riding with Will is paying off. On Friday I decided to ride home from work as a recovery ride. My legs felt good the first part of the ride home. Once I was near Robins AFB, the route started to go up a bit. My legs felt fine until I hit the small hills just before Sandy Run Road. They hurt a bit more than usual. I headed home and my average speed was still 18 mph. On Saturday, I waited to ride with Will. He had a class but called me about noon to go for a ride. We were both pressed for time so we decided to push the pace a bit. I met him on the road and we started pushing the pace. We did a shorter version of the loop we usually do and it was a good workout. We did 25.5 miles and my average was 19.4 mph. All in all it was a good weekend and my legs feel better now.