I rode with a neighbor who’s an elite-level triathlete. He’s a great guy and an incredible cyclist. I’m sure when Jeff looks at me this is what he’s thinking…
But he doesn’t. He just loves to ride, and is exceptionally committed to his discipline. So we went out on a 45-miler in the late morning. I like riding with Jeff because I push myself harder whenever we ride. He doesn’t force me to, nor would he. But I feel like I have to keep him at more than a recovery level effort, so I work hard.
The day couldn’t have been more beautiful. Completely cloudless sky, temps in the low- to mid-60s for the most part. Simply perfect conditions.
The ride was mostly drama free. One pretty close call with a driver who decided to pass us very close to an oncoming driver. The irony in this case is that this same driver let us get in a turn lane on a busy highway to cross to a side road. That was a generous maneuver. Then the same driver, minutes later, does a very dangerous tight pass. I would’ve thought this was the last person to do that. Go figure.
I was pretty cooked after the ride was done, but Jeff is preparing for an Ironman triathlon in a few weeks, and said he was going to do another loop. And then he was going to run for an hour and a half.
The takeaway: Triathletes are not like you and me.
Some numbers: Weighted average power: 183. Average mph: 15.5. Average cadence: 90. I was a bit surprised at the low average speed, given the power numbers.
I was wiped out the rest of the day, which I didn’t expect. It wasn’t a really long ride (which for me is more than 50 miles), but putting out that power for almost 3 hours did me in.
The route is below.