I joined Milo and Lance on a long hard road ride Saturday.
I started from my home and rode down to Golden to meet them there. That ride was mostly downhill, starting at 9200ft and ending at around 6000. There are two climbs, the first is 10 minutes and other is 6 minutes. The rest is a fast descent. This was my first time riding down this road and it was quite fun. I think my average speed was about 30mph.
After meeting Milo and Lance at the White Ranch Open Space lower parking lot we headed out for the big loop. Back up Golden Gate Canyon Rd (the road I had just descended), to the Peak to Peak (hwy119), then up and over hwy72, down to hwy 93 and ending back at White Ranch, 55 miles.
It’s amazing how much harder and faster one rides when they ride with someone. The last three times I rode this loop this year, my time was between 3:50 and 4:00 hrs. This time my time was 3:30hrs. Now, the other times I’ve ridden this loop I rode in zone 2, and wasn’t trying to work hard, but just get through the ride. This ride I hit all my zones, and tried to stay in zone 3 as much as I could. I did feel pretty good all the way around, and as expected did start fatiguing toward the end.
I am feeling stronger on the climbs and my speed and efficiency has also improved. I have 5 more weeks before starting the build phases, so still lots of work to do.
Check out my ride profile from Training Peaks.