Chewed up and spit out the back!

[TrekJeni]

It was absolutly gorgeous yesterday. High was 79 and I wore shorts and a sleeveless jersey to the club ride last night. About twenty of us turned up. Everyone caught up on what everyone else did over the winter, who got new bikes, etc...

Last fall, my usual group was the 17mph's. Our leader wasn't there so we got grouped with the 15's. After climbing the first hill and waiting to regroup, the 15's leader told us we were allowed to split off if we wanted to. Our club is very insistent that we do the POSTED average. Too many horror stories from other rides that say they're doing something only to do much faster, drop people in the middle of nowhere and people get hoplessly lost as they dont' regroup. About seven of us looked at each other and said let's do our usual 17 mph.

So there I was, my BF leading the group. We had taken my car to the ride and his computer was in his truck so he had no idea what speed we were doing. I'm hanging on for dear life with the pack, going "$hit this is hard, we're doing 25 in the flats!" Another hill comes and I fall off the back, by the time I'm at the top, everyone is a speck of dust on the horizon!

I was pissed to say the least but then I got to thinking...
Last March I was a 12 - 15 mph rider
I have ridden four days in a row (100+ miles) this week and did not ride ONE day outside all of Febuary!
All I ate was a salad for lunch. Sucked a gel down before the ride but that was nowhere near enough.
I commuted for the FIRST TIME today to work and back, happened to meet up with one of my racing buddies on the commute so went faster and harder than orginally planned PLUS I have this really ugly hill I have to climb on the way home so I was already spent.

At the stop sign I gave the BF some attitude. He apologized for getting everyone so worked up. You know how it is, one guy goes fast and the next thing you know, you're immersed in a testosterone fest!

BUT I'm happy, averaged 16.9 and like I said, I'm already ahead of last years performance levels!!!

Jeni

[FreshNewbie]

You go Jeni!!!
Guys always get like that. Last year when I used to ride with a really nice B+ group of guys and maybe one other girl, I always tried not to be the last one in the pack and some guys took it very personally and were playing "no I was here first" game with me But it's all good, concentrate on your own goals!!! Looks like you already doing awsome and the season only starting.

[TrekJeni]

You know, there is a silver lining to every cloud, you just have to look hard enough. Knowing that I'm further ahead on my speed than last year is good enough for me. Who cares if I fell off the back? It's a no drop ride anyway!

[DDH]

Good for you!! It's always nice when we can see the positive that comes out of our experiences. Great job, that's quite fast in my opinion anyway.

[indysteel]

TrekJeni, I had a similar experience at yesterday's ride, although it was entirely my own fault.

We started Sunday's club ride--the first of the year--as per usual. I was loosely riding with three other women and, within the first few miles, we found ourselves in a double paceline with another group of riders, none of whom I recognized. I was near the back and several of the riders in front of mine kept getting out of formation. Now, I'm not that dogmatic about pacelines, but they were getting squirrely enough that it was bothering me. So, at my first opportunity, I sprinted to the front to catch up with my friends. We quickly caught with yet another group that was riding at a good clip.

I then overheard a man behind me make a comment to his friend that the girl on the Bianchi, i.e., me, was a strong rider! Well, that made me feel great--and apparently overly ambitious--because before I knew it, one of my friends and I tore off from the pack and did the next 12 miles or so at a really strong pace. It felt great, but just before the first and only SAG, the group caught up, and I had a sneaking suspicion that my legs were toast.

After the SAG, it took a couple of miles for my legs to warm up (it was breezy and about 40 degrees), but I felt okay until we hit what should have been an easy hill to climb. I had trouble getting over it and by the end, my legs had started to cramp. I quickly fell off the back and spent the next 7 miles or so just stuggling to move. My legs finally started to uncramp, but by then, I was on my own, riding into an increasingly stiff headwind with 11 miles to go. While I generally like riding alone, I would have preferred some help with the wind.

I finished with an average speed just under 17 mph. That's pretty good for me considering that this is only my second ride of the year and the chilly temperature. I'm irritated with myself though for having pushed myself too hard early in the ride--just to show off essentially. It could have been a better ride if I'd ridden a little more smartly. I have to find a good balance between pushing myself and conserving my energy.

[li10up]

indysteel, good story. Two years ago I tried riding with the moderate club ride. I remember trying to show the guys that I "belonged" and would ride at the front at the beginning of the ride. Then toward the middle of the ride I would drop off the back. If I would have just ridden in the middle or back of the pack I might have been able to hang with them for the duration. So, I ended up not riding with them last year and just trying to make myself a stronger rider...and smarter. This year I am going to try again to ride with that group. I think I have learned from my mistakes. I'm really hoping to be able to hang with them for the whole ride. Why do we always feel like we have to prove ourselves? Not this time.

[PinkBike]

indy, averaging almost 17 is still a good clip! we had a 74 mile ride yesterday around the white tank mountains. the flier said FLATFLATFLAT and we had a perfect tail wind for the first 25 miles, then a crosswind then a head wind. i went out on my own for the tailwind and average 23.4, then the crosswinds just took it out of me and i was struggling. i just try to keep pedalling and know i will soon recover. then a group of three passed me and i jumped on and we paced all the way to the last sag. leaving the sag we turned into the wind and i just couldnt stay on. thats when i got really disheartened, and irritated at myself like you said. then the ride ends with a killer hill - short but steep - 5.9 mph! anyway, not a stellar performance.

but DH just had shoulder surgery last week so he's off the bike for probably several months, and i did learn a valuable lesson - its not the same without him. i needed him to help pull AND more importantly for the moral support. at the end of yesterdays ride i thought, "whoa, that wasnt even fun."

[indysteel]

Jeni, I'm sorry to hijack this thread, but since we're on this subject....

Yesterday's ride actually played into some self doubts that have been plagueing me since last fall. When I first starting riding, I mostly road alone and loved it. Then I started doing a lot of club rides and started to develop a bit of a love/hate thing, not with cycling but with myself. At the club rides, I met a few people that were kind enough to ride with me and we were fast friends. While it was clear that I wasn't the strongest rider in the group, I didn't feel like I was seriously holding anybody back either. Everyone was really supportive because they knew I was a new rider.

Near the end of the year, however, I started slowing down. The cold and wind really started to get to me and I don't think I'd fully recovered from back to back viruses that I had in October. At the same time, one of my closest riding buddies got a new bike. Normally, I think people overestimate the effect of a lighter bike, but her's really made a difference. She went from this clunker of Giant that didn't fit her to a carbon LeMond. In just a few rides, I realized that I was in trouble. I started looking at everyone's back...a lot.

Since then, I met a couple of women through my yoga studio who are also cyclists. While I've only ridden with them a couple of times, I tend to think that they're also stronger and faster than me. So, while it felt good to lead the pack for a while yesterday, it sucked to get dropped too. It doesn't help that one of the guys in the group said something to me about how I must have been working out over the winter since I was, at that point, keeping up with the group. I confidently told him that I had been and then, ironically, fell off the back five minutes later.

I would note that our club has both good and bad features to it. I was intrigued by Jeni's description of how her club divides everyone up by average speed. In contrast, our rides are just a free for all. The course is marked, and we start en masse. The racing types quickly disappear and are never seen again. Everyone else spends the first few miles kind of jockeying for position and, from there, we just get spread out. If you lose your group, you're liable to ride the rest of the route by yourself, which I've done many a time. So, if you can't keep up, it's not guaranteed that you're going to fall in step with other riders.

I don't want to be the girl everyone thinks of as bringing up the rear, but I also have to honest with myself and others about what my body is capable of. I'm all for trying to keep up if it will eventually make me stronger, but not at the cost of my self-esteem. I like the challenge and socializing that comes with the club rides, but I sometimes wonder if it's worth it.

I guess I don't really have a specific question for you. I just wonder if the rest of you have dealt with feeling inadequate on your bike. I can deal with the average man being faster/stronger than me, but I hate not being able to keep up with my girlfriends.

Kate

[spokewench]

Jeni, I'm sorry to hijack this thread, but since we're on this subject....

Yesterday's ride actually played into some self doubts that have been plagueing me since last fall. When I first starting riding, I mostly road alone and loved it. Then I started doing a lot of club rides and started to develop a bit of a love/hate thing, not with cycling but with myself. At the club rides, I met a few people that were kind enough to ride with me and we were fast friends. While it was clear that I wasn't the strongest rider in the group, I didn't feel like I was seriously holding anybody back either. Everyone was really supportive because they knew I was a new rider.

Near the end of the year, however, I started slowing down. The cold and wind really started to get to me and I don't think I'd fully recovered from back to back viruses that I had in October. At the same time, one of my closest riding buddies got a new bike. Normally, I think people overestimate the effect of a lighter bike, but her's really made a difference. She went from this clunker of Giant that didn't fit her to a carbon LeMond. In just a few rides, I realized that I was in trouble. I started looking at everyone's back...a lot.

Since then, I met a couple of women through my yoga studio who are also cyclists. While I've only ridden with them a couple of times, I tend to think that they're also stronger and faster than me. So, while it felt good to lead the pack for a while yesterday, it sucked to get dropped too. It doesn't help that one of the guys in the group said something to me about how I must have been working out over the winter since I was, at that point, keeping up with the group. I confidently told him that I had been and then, ironically, fell off the back five minutes later.

I would note that our club has both good and bad features to it. I was intrigued by Jeni's description of how her club divides everyone up by average speed. In contrast, our rides are just a free for all. The course is marked, and we start en masse. The racing types quickly disappear and are never seen again. Everyone else spends the first few miles kind of jockeying for position and, from there, we just get spread out. If you lose your group, you're liable to ride the rest of the route by yourself, which I've done many a time. So, if you can't keep up, it's not guaranteed that you're going to fall in step with other riders.

I don't want to be the girl everyone thinks of as bringing up the rear, but I also have to honest with myself and others about what my body is capable of. I'm all for trying to keep up if it will eventually make me stronger, but not at the cost of my self-esteem. I like the challenge and socializing that comes with the club rides, but I sometimes wonder if it's worth it.

I guess I don't really have a specific question for you. I just wonder if the rest of you have dealt with feeling inadequate on your bike. I can deal with the average man being faster/stronger than me, but I hate not being able to keep up with my girlfriends.

Kate

Kate: I think all of us have doubts about strength on the bike, are we getting better?; do we really want to keep getting our butts trounced?, at some time.

I thought I would try to give you a little perspective cause people who have ridden for a while always gain this perspective. I used to get upset when I could not hold onto a pack or my girlfriends kept riding away from me on the hills. But, now I know, fitness changes dependent upon time to ride, train, life, job, etc., etc. I've been riding with the same group of girls for years. They are my best friends. It used to be that they always, always beat me. Then, one got out of shape, and I could beat her; then I got in good shape and I could beat the other one; then I got out of shape and one of them beat me again!

It comes around and you learn that fitness is fleeting and that sometimes you will be slower and sometimes you will be faster. It has a lot to do with fitness, how long you've been riding, what's going on in your life, etc., etc. So, don't worry, it gets better and it gets worse. It is really not something that should make you worry that your not worthy or good enough.

[li10up]

I know exactly how you feel. You can try what I did - volunteer to lead a club ride. I didn't feel like I could keep up with the moderate group so I volunteered to be a ride leader on a beginner/easy paced ride. You can set the pace to what you like and set the rules of the ride. You would be in control and could keep everyone together. Now I feel I'm faster than the beginner/easy paced folks but I still lead that ride 'cause it gives me somebody to ride with and forces me to be there...no saying I don't feel like riding today. You may then find someone in that group that rides at your pace and then you can arrange to ride with him/her on another day(s). I found a great riding partner by doing that. We push each other and on our rides together we get a good workout. Our beginner ride ususally averages somewhere between 13 and 14 mph. Riding the other day with my new found partner we averaged 16mph on a fairly windy day. Over a flat section we were going 21 mph for a long while. It was a great ride.

[Mr. Bloom]

I guess I don't really have a specific question for you. I just wonder if the rest of you have dealt with feeling inadequate on your bike. I can deal with the average man being faster/stronger than me, but I hate not being able to keep up with my girlfriends.

Kate

indy, Silver and I had a very heated discussion about this same issue just two weeks ago.

Our argument introduced a new concept to me...that of the 'group riding dynamic'. That is, etiquette for these situations.

To me, this was an 'alien concept'...I never knew there was an etiquette about this stuff...this is not knowledge that would be intuitive...particularly to someone like me who is not experienced in team sports.

Maybe this is something that warrants a group discussion in your club?

[indysteel]

Thanks for words of wisdom. I feel better today. Yesterday was just one of those down-on-myself days that are oh so pleasant.

I went to yoga last night and thought a lot about this. I'm blessed to have a wonderful instructor who talks during class quite a bit about self-acceptance, courage, grace, etc. Last night in particular, she kept repeating that we are already "enough." With her guidance, I find that I'm much gentler with myself emotionally when I'm on my mat. Then I get on the bike--at least at group rides--and it's a different story. The bottom line is that I need to devote some energy toward bringing my attitude at yoga to the bike. After all, no one, other than me, is telling me that I'm not good enough. I am, by nature, both competitive and driven. Those traits, as many of you know, can work both for and against you.....

As for the Club: CIBA is big and while it does a lot of things really well, it is rather impersonal as an organization. There are lots of quality people in the group, but it's up to you to find them. There's a debate currently raging on our website about how to attract new/young people to the organization. When I read posts here about how other clubs do their rides, I often wonder whether it's time that CIBA did a wholesale analysis of how it organizaes and runs its rides. Like I said, the riders leave en masse. The rides, especially at the height of the season, attract upwards of 150-200 riders. The ride leaders do not do the ride but, instead, sign everyone in, man the SAGs, patrol the route, etc. If anyone congregates after the ride, it's because they want to, not because CIBA encourages or fosters it.

While I have not signed on to be a ride leader this year, I have offered to help a friend who is serving as a rider leader several times and who manages one of our local bike shops. I'm a very social person, so I have no trouble meeting and befriending people so hopefully over the season I'll get to know more and more of the regulars. I'm also getting to know some riders who are in a bit of a splinter group. They participate in CIBA but also ride as a group on their own too.

I'm likely riding by myself tonight. I think that will be time well spent.


Kate

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, I can't even imagine riding in a group of TEN riders, much less 150-200!! I admire you guys, you have TRUE GRIT!

Signed,
SlowPoke 9mphAverage mostlysolitary hillyroad&backwoodsroad 30lbBike cyclist.

[indysteel]

As as addendum to my previous posts, I wanted to report that my last two rides were, in a word, AWESOME. Notwithstanding last week's pity party, I'm feeling a lot more confident in how much stronger I've gotten over the last few months. My friends and I were rockin' it out last Sunday and again this past Tuesday. I'm using gears I only dreamt of last year. I'm also using words like sprint, hammer and surge for the first time. Fun, fun.

Lisa, I would add that I don't really end up riding with 200 people. Navigating through/around/behind them is more like it. It's crazy at the start of our club rides, but then everyone kind of spreads out. We are a sight at the beginning of a ride though. No matter how big the turnout, I usually end up riding with pretty small groups of people, mostly friends. We sometimes form a single or double paceline, but it's all very loose and low key. I am, however, hoping to do some training rides this year that will likely involve a more unnerving form of group riding. I'd like to work on the skills needed for that, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to like it. We'll see.

[li10up]

Indy- glad to hear your ride were good.

I too have a good report. Last Thursday I just rode within myself at the beginning of the ride. Didn't get stupid and try to lead out the group. I was able to hang with them. There's a really stong girl that rides with that group and she even asked me for my phone number so we could get together and ride sometime. Now, to me, that is a compliment. She thinks I can hang with her. Makes me feel good to think that I am improving. Little by little I'm getting stronger. Hopefully I'll do well again tonight...if it doesn't rain.