Saturday August 23 Training Ride
This weekend was our last weekend before we head out to New Mexico on Friday. On Saturday we did the training ride from the house. The day was perfect, sunny, blue sky, and some wind. (We had decided not to do a longer ride because weather.com had reported we were going to have winds gusting up to 18-20 miles per hour). Anyway, we rode the ride and there were several things that we wanted to practice. One, I have spent the entire summer trying to stay on Kevin's wheel. Drafting saves a great deal of energy - about 30 percent. I have worked on staying with him this summer and it has made a tremendous difference in how fast and far I have been able to go without getting tired. However, since we are now going out west, we needed to practice looking around and looking at the sites. So we went a little slower and spent more time looking around - amazing how many things you don't see when you are drafting. On Sunday's ride we would spend time looking around and we have some great pictures of the ride which I expect Kevin will put up shortly.
The second thing that wasn't really planned but was a good thing to try was Kevin wanted me to pull - that is he wanted to draft behind me - give me the opportunity to pull. I pulled out in front and I wanted to push the pace - amazing how much wind resistance makes - within 20 feet I thought my lungs were going to burst and my legs felt like 100 pound weights. I settled into a good, hard pace and pulled a good distance. At one point, I asked Kevin to pull but he wanted me to continue so I did up until we turned off near the railroad tracks and Kevin pulled the rest of the way. We arrived at the house and all summer long I have used Kevin's computer for average speed and distance. Last week, though, I got a new computer put on the bike so my information should be correct. My average speed was 19.8. Not as good as the last time but not bad. Have to keep working so that I become consistant.
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