I was up at 5:15am this morning and out the door by 6am to head on over to an established cycling group ride. I've ridden in groups a few years ago and felt confident that I could hold on to this group. I tried to go on a group ride a few weeks back and was basically stood up - no such ride existed! This group was riding 40+ miles at an average of 18mph. This means you are riding between 17mph to 22mph at any given point.
I love cycling. It's my strength. Running is my weakness which I have turned into a strength with a lot of hard work and dedication. I love the cycling so putting an effort is easy. That being said, I've been hard at work for weeks now and thought I should go for a challenging group ride. Group rides will make you better at handling your bike and it will help you get faster. That being said, you have to be pretty comfortable riding on someone's wheel (basically riding a few inches from the back wheel of the rider in front of you) and you must know the basics of group riding (hand signals, safety measures, etc.). We began at 7am and it started raining, UGHHHHH. I can't stand riding in the rain because I have fears of sliding off the road to my doom. Luckily, peer pressure to keep up with my fellow riders kicked in and I was handling that bike like a pro and cutting turns on wet roads and feeling strong and capable. A little rain was not going to stop me today.
We rode forward and on the way back, Mother Nature heard my pleas and she lit up the streets with some sun, dried the wet roads and gave us 20 miles of great weather. When I reached my car, I thought of how several weeks ago, I couldn't have gone anywhere near 40 miles. Then I realized, yesterday was behind me. It wasn't a few weeks ago, it was today, and today, 40 miles were behind my bike wheels and I was looking forward to my next big challenge, the triathlon next Sunday. Wish me luck!
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