Training Saturday, 4/26/08

Joined up with some members of the Rochester Bicycling Club for a nice jaunt from Webster Park over to Pultneyville on back roads, then back again. My first time riding any distance in a group, so it was a completely new experience. Living within a couple miles of the park, I rode down to the lake and met up with the group. I found everyone there friendly, if a bit shy, and promptly joined a group talking, kept my mouth shut, and listened for a bit to see what I could learn. Introduced myself around, and met some other newcomers who I tried to buddy up with.

Shortly thereafter, we took off, and quickly subdivided into three groups. Officially the ride is a "Sweep" ride, which means that the ride leader rides at the back of the group and makes sure nobody gets left behind. I figured it was a nice intermediate ride to start out with, meet some people, and see what sort of level I could join in with while avoiding "holding back" any riders.

The group started out strong, and quickly segregated into three groups, a faster, medium, and more relaxed group, with the faster group going a bit farther before turning back, medium group going not quite as far, and the relaxed group cutting back at 15 miles (for a grand total of 30 round trip).

I initially started out tailing one of the more experienced riders, and before I knew it, found myself up in the faster group, bring up the rear along with another of the new riders, a nice young lady on a one-week-old Surly Long-Haul Trucker! We stuck together as rookies for most of the ride, managing to hang with the fast group all the way to Pultneyville (although I did see my heart rate a bit higher than I normally would have expected, in the 171 bpm range). Once we got to Pultneyville we pulled over in the park to enjoy the Lake Ontario scenery for a bit before turning around for the trek back to Webster.

Trip back to Webster went fairly well, and either the group slowed down, or I was less anxious about riding in a pack, as my heart rate subsided considerably. Hit more back roads on the way home, but finished up with a pretty high-speed descent down the last 1 - 1.5 miles on Holt Road, doing everything I could to keep up with the pack leader. Our average speed was around 22 mph down the road, but I was glad we hit the lake (and the end of our route) when we did, as I couldn't have kept up that pace for much longer.

Overall, a very nice ride with some welcoming folks, and I learned that riding in a group can be quite a bit of fun (and sure helps the miles fly by).

Ride Statistics:

• Distance: 44.77 miles
• Avg. Speed: 16.6 mph
• Avg. HR: 161 bpm
• Max HR: 186 bpm
• Calories Burned: 2820