Ranchos Ride Today

Went out on the Ranchos Saturday Ride today. Very challenging ride. I showed 4400' of climbing @ 60 miles, averaging 18mph. Went up Lake Wholford climb and Cole Grade. Although I have been up Lake Wholdford before, Cole Grade was new to me. New climbs in the club environment are always very challenging as I don't know where the top of the hill is. Pacing is pretty challenging for this reason. I was able to do pretty well. This ride was a quicker pace than 2 weeks ago when I initially went with Ranchos. I was probably 6 or 7th to the top, but within a couple hundred yards. Regroup at the top and waited for the back end for 5 mins or so. Continued on to Lilac and then took a right on Circle R, then left on Champagne and back to the mall. Most of the group took a right on Circle R to do 80 plus miles. This was a little more than I wanted to do, especially at that pace, so I took a left with a few other riders and headed back to the mall.

These rides are pretty epic by exertion standards. The ride two weeks ago was 110% effort that left me cramping at the end of the ride. I avoided that today by just riding my ride at my pace. Two weeks ago, I was up front all day and felt the urge to hammer every hill with the faster guys. I had never cramped before on a ride. I attribute it to exertion levels. Today's ride was a 90% ride. I backed off a little today, as I was feeling drained after the last outting with Ranchos. I do find their rides similar to how I felt earlier this year when I started riding with NCCC. It's good to get out of my comfort zone every once in awhile, so right now I'll try to ride with them every other week.

I've been re-evaluating goals all the time, trying to get a realistic set of goals that will carry me to the final result, of something epic. Lately, I've been thinking of a road racing schedule next year with the mountain bike race in Prescott as well. Of course, this is more of a journey than a destination, so my daily and weekly rides are definite medicine for this biking desease that I seem to have. Taking sunday off to relax and do a longer ride on Monday.