TNT Training Ride: Nokesville

Last night, after getting home from the range and cleaning my equipment, I ran around the house and prepped everything--directions, water bottles, the bike, etc. When I woke up four hours later, I had little else to do but shower, dress, bolt down some food, hop in the car, and go. Good thing, too, since I was running late (I'm always running late).

I got to the starting place on-time, unpacked the bike, and did some final prep (air in the tires, reset the computer, ditch unneccessary clothes). Then we started off, with me leading. I consider today's ride to be the first actual TNT training ride, because it's the first one that we had a set course to complete, not just "ride up and down this stretch of pavement until you're done". It's also the first time I've ever actually used a cue sheet (the Seagull Century had a cue sheet, but the route was marked with little seagulls spraypainted on the road with arrows indicating the direction to go, so I didn't use the cue sheet). Not so hard.

Me and three other guys--Chris (tall guy, w/ yellow/orange Trek, sky-blue jersey with the number "6" on it), Josh (average-height guy, shaven bald, w/ prismatique green-purple Cannondale, blue jersey), and Chuck (super-tall guy, blue(?) Trek, wearing a big blue parachute of a windbreaker and with The Incredible Hulk-green-liquid-filled bottles)--rocked it all the way out to the SAG (Support And Gear) stop at 17.5 miles, stopped and ate for a few minutes, and then jumped back on the road.

On the second half, we missed a turn and wound up doing an extra half-mile on a stretch of Aden Rd. that had more traffic...oh well! We made it back first, with me in front and the rest a minute back.

Good times with the wind today, as well as the gentle rolling hills. Good thing the four of us are fairly strong riders--we got a paceline going (or at least, it was a good system of rotating who was in front, so that no one works too hard), and I actually pulled for a good chunk of that time. Unfortunately, I still have this habit of dropping the people I'm trying to pull, even though when I get to the front I try to maintain a certain speed--one that I think should be manageable by the rest of my group. Perhaps I should tell them, though: if I get to the front, I'll maintain at 16.5mph or something. Maybe. I dunno--we've got a lot of training rides left to get this sorted out, and I know communication is key.

Statistics:
Distance: 36.64mi
Saddle Time: 2h06m22s
Actual Time: 2h20m
Start Time: 8:45AM
End Time: 11:05AM
Start Outside Temp: ??? (felt like mid-40's)
End Oustide Temp: ??? (felt like high-40's/low 50's)
Max Speed: 34.5mph
Avg Speed (saddle): 17.3mph
Avg Speed (actaul): 15.7mph

Afterwards, about 20 of us went to Joe's Pizza in Nokesville and stuffed ourselves with some excellent pizza. Good times!

It's definitely weird, though, being one of the youngest members on the team and dining with people who are 20, 30, even 40 years older than I am. I'm definitely not the youngest member, as I think there are a few people in college on the team, but I think I'm the youngest to attend the after-ride lunch gatherings...

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Addendum: One thing I forgot to report is that I had my first encounter with a loose dog today. A pitbull was loose and chased our group, darting into the road at Josh and me. Josh swerved and broke away, and the dog fixed on me, and he didn't look like he was bored of chasing cyclists as he came withing a foot of my left leg. So I yelled "HEY!!!" at it at the top of my lungs and it broke off. That was my first real fight-or-flight situation--I didn't have any sort of weapon on me, so harsh language and speed is all I had.

When I yelled and the dog broke off, I thought to myself how interesting it was that I wasn't feeling hyper adrenaline or anything...it was just something I reacted to, something very natural. I didn't tense up or panic, but when it came down to it I was calmly and deliberately reacting to it. I've played this scenario over and over in my head, ever since I started riding. I didn't think it would actually happen, but reports of it were common enough that I figured it'd be good to mentally prepare myself for it. And it paid off.

I don't think that dog actually managed to get a piece of any other rider, though I did hear during lunch that it chased down other cyclists on our team.

And there were a few other dogs that ran along with us on the home-stretch, but they seemed friendly and didn't actually come out onto the road.

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Nokesville, in the warm spring sunlight, is quite beautiful...reminded me of the Seagull Century ride, with the rural roads and small farms along the ride. Just beautiful country to ride in, and the roads themselves were in excellent shape with no rough spots or gravel patches or anything.