Rose32 after thoughts

On Sunday, I rode down to Rose32 bakery with a bunch of guys from 7 hills wheelmen. The usual suspects showed up: don, kat, eric f, eric d, dave c, kevin, justin, marty, mike foley, joe. The pace down was good and my legs felt good. At every town line Dave had to sprint, which is fun and a good motivation. I kept a steady pace and stuck on Justin's wheel. As we climbed the last hill before Rose32, kat and mike had to sprint for it, so I decided to tag along.

When we arrived at the bakery, I looked at cyclemeter and noticed we had averaged 24mph from Paxton center school. That's a distance of 22 miles, give or take. Everyone worked together and took turns pulling. Eric D and Dave tended to take longer pulls, since they're stronger.

When I first started, I used to just ride by myself. That was mostly due to confidence in my skills and bike handling. Riding in a paceline felt scary and I didn't want to cause others to crash. It took me 18 months of riding to get comfortable with the road position. For the most part, I kept my hands on the hoods and tops. My friend dave tried to teach me pace line, and other important skills, but it took a damn long time for me to learn. I'm just not natural and don't handle the bike with any talent. When I see someone that is a natural, everything looks effortless. Their cadence is steady the entire time and rarely do they over spin or struggle to find the right gear.

When I first started, I would only shift the rear and then have to drop to the small chain ring. That usually meant over spinning. Sometimes I'd recover quickly, sometimes it would just throw me off. On bad days, I'd end up grinding to a crawl. As I got more fit, I was less focused on survival and more on cadence. Right around 18 months, I started to get a floating sensation. My friend dave said "you know the cadence is good when you feel like you're floating and it's like you're not peddling at all."

On Sunday's ride, my legs felt that wonderful floating sensation for most of the ride. On the final climb up to Paxton center it was hard. Marty and I worked together to pull each other up the hill. Even though I didn't feel "fast" going up long pond climb, I ended up getting a personal record (PR). With a few more great group rides, my legs will be back in shape.