Training: EF-Whitwell-Colney Heath-EF

My regular Sunday group ride today was frustrating, but got miles into my legs nevertheless. There were five of us: the leader who was very strong (ridden with him before), an older guy (must have been about 55-60) who was also very strong, me - OK, getting there, and 2 other guys who were definitely on the wrong ride - very slow, but nice guys just the same.

These guys were constantly being dropped even during the first 10-miles of warm up - I felt a bit sorry for them, but confused because I'd seen them on this ride before and they were also dropped very quickly then. Anyway - the 2 stronger guys had to turn back halfway along the route which left me with the 2 slow pokes - I was now the designated leader...

A few miles into my new role and the guys wanted to stop for tea at a roadside pub. We'd already covered 35-miles and I felt like I wanted to just press on alone at my own pace, but because I was the leader (and the only one who knew the way home), I agreed and stopped with them for a 15-minute cuppa. They were interesting guys and good to chat to, but I felt like I was wasting my day. Not wanting to appear like an a-hole, I kept my bitterness to myself - I would just cruise through the rest of the ride and enjoy the scenery.

Luckily there was a brisk headwind on the way back, so I sat in front, very upright - to get the full drag of the wind, and pulled the other 2 along, but still not feeling much effort, even though they were struggling to keep up. I'd sprint to the top of every hill, then coast easily down the other side, waiting for them. If the weather and scenery hadn't been so good, today's ride would have been downright lousy...

Eventually the ride was over and I headed home, feeling bitter - I realised today that I actually crave pain and speed. I didn't get my fix!

I loaded a course I'd done before in this area on my Garmin to find my way and accidentally wiped out my data from my current ride, so unfortunately no GPS data for my blog post. I did take the distance/time data from my Cateye computer, though - slowest ride done all year!


Distance: 102.1km
Time: 4:04:42
Speed: 25.0kph / 15.6mph