Training Log - 3/18/07

Distance: 55.3 miles
Max speed: 31.6 mph
Average speed: 14.1 mph
Temperature: 46-69 degrees
Stretching

Total Training Distance: 346.7 miles
Total Time on trainer: 2.5 hours
Weight: 187.2 lbs

OK, I woke up at 4:30, left my house at 5:30 and drove to Windermere to bike our scheduled 50 mile ride. There were 22 of us, including the 4 cyclists from the North Florida TNT team. Mark called the team together before the ride to remember a cyclist, training for the same TNT event, who passed away from a brain aneurysm during this same ride two years ago. He and several of the members of that team stopped off at the spot this happened to remember their fallen team mate before continuing on with the ride. I think this speaks volumes to the character of the people I now ride with.

Anyway, we rode for a bit more than 50 miles. At 55 miles this is almost twice as long a ride as I have ever done (30 miles). And it was a hard ride on hills named "Taco Hill", "The Wall" and "Buck Hill". Buck Hill was a first for me, and let me just say, it was the first hill a shred of doubt had entered my head as to whether I would make it. It was tough.

The first third of the ride was tame, just some rolling hills. The middle third of the ride contained the challenging hills. Tough. And, the last third was a repeat of the first third except by then the legs were heavy.

It was a good ride. It was fun to be with the team to do it. It also taught me that I some work still to do before I am ready for Tahoe.