the coffee ride

A little recovery .......

Today was one of those days that reminds me why I love this sport so much. It was the who-knows-how-many-years- annual Train-This coffee ride. We ride South to Naples, stop at the Grainery and we ride back. Simple. It might have been our best coffee ride ever.

I had some zone 2 work to do..... and I do need to mention that Coach Jesse has his own heart rate ranges:

Zone R

Zone 1

Zone 2

You can equate The QT2 Zone 2 to Friel's Zone 3..... give or take. Now the rule on rides like this is when Zone 1 (which is more like Friel's Zone 2.... give or take) is perscribed, you stay in Zone 1. You try not to use your Zone 2 bank until the Zone 2 intervals hit. That meant I sat back for a lot of the ride and watched the fabulous athletes I get to work with ride. Their winter work is paying off.

I primarily rode with Don..... THE BULL..... Jochen..... King of the Mountain...... Jackie D.....the British invasion, Steve, and Kim. I don't' have nicknames for Steve and Kim. It was awesome to watch them all ascend the hills.

Dennis and his very own sweat box arrived part way through the ride. Dennis dresses warm. All of the time. He used to wear this green fleece that we called his Snuggie or his Woobie. Jeremy and his one lung showed up with Uncle Glenn. Alan stayed right in the thick of things, the guy can freaking ride. Amy Mo got duct taped due to a fall at a gas station. Peter O claims to not have killed the squirrel he jumped but I have no photographic evidence. I imagine Eddy is wondering what he got himself into. I noticed that Steve and Dennis suddenly have matching P2C's...... planned?

Amy Mo and her carnage

We rode south to Naples. When you say South and the road seems to be downhill.... you imagine it to be fast. Not so much today. I was pushing big watts and staying where I was supposed to stay. I reminded the gang I didn't need to lead the ride, in fact when training I'd much rather stare at the hub of your back wheel. I know when to push and the time was not then.

On the way back Jochen requested coach permission to push the 10 minute climb out of Naples. As I did my best to stay out of zone 2 and in my zone 1, I granted it. We all looked at each other.

Dude can climb.

As I neared my own zone 2 intervals coming up...... I sent Jochen ahead again with the intention of catching him. My time finally, finally came. I put my head down and I rode. Not so hard I thought I'd puke, but I rode hungry. I rode to catch Jochen and I was on my favorite section of my favorite road. 64 between 5 and 20 and 251. Heading North. The world seems to tip when you come back from Naples, this road is F.A.S.T. Finally I was in my element, riding hard, the wind flying through me, catching someone ahead. I reminded myself that I am to push when I am supposed to push, not a second sooner. I follow instructions. (I do need to mention that I only caught Jochen because he was recovering. And he didn't know I was chasing.)

I felt awesome.

Back at the park Jochen joined me for a 30 min T run. I talked Kim into it by completely lying to her. I told her it was 10 minutes around "the loop" and back. Strangely when we got back it was 17, and if you run for 17 might as well run for 30, right?

It was a great run. I could not believe how good I felt. After the week of training I had, after the ride, I began to negative split the run a bit.

30 minutes hit. 18 hours in the bank.

I slapped hands with Kim and Jochen.

"This is the stuff Ironman is made of." They smiled.

I smiled too. we head to camp in Lake Placid on Friday. This might be the best camp group we've ever had.

Stay tuned........ the picture below is the British Invasion. Jackie D. herself.