May 23, 2007 by Ron Fogle
All right John, Just in case you young skinny guys think that all the racing is taking place at the front of the pack... Battles of mind over mass are taking place behind you.
Caution: This report contains graphic imagery of overweight, middle aged men on road bikes. If you have a weak stomach, well, I warned you!
Wed. night Russ and I did five mile time trial repeats(3) with Pete's group. About fifty people showed up. We rode out to the starting line at the Quarry fast, well, because we could.... and Russ told me that the faster we got there the more time I'd have to recover before the first interval... There were about 8 of us who made up the first "roadie" group. There was another Junior in the group and his dad pulled up to the line to ride with us. Cool! Turns out Russ's advice wasn't the greatest, as the guy starting us was there about 20 seconds after I arrived and my heart was still pounding pretty good. The whistle blew and right off the bat I was working hard to keep up with the lead group. I kept my rpm's up with a steady rhythm, and a couple of perfectly timed downshifts, on the grade to the tracks, with this other dad right on my wheel. I was only twenty yards or so behind the lead group at the tracks, but my lungs were screaming, and I felt a blow up coming. I had to back off a little at the tracks and let the guy behind me come around, partially because I needed to ease up a little, and partially because I knew it was raining those salty raindrops behind me, and letting him by was just a considerate thing to do. He said something about not being able to keep up with the kids and I let him by. In fact, I let him get up about 200 yards while my legs came back. Anyway, he kept looking back over his shoulder. Probably just to make sure I was all right. I was pretty sure I'd get him on the grades past the mobile home park, so I just hung back. I had him right where I wanted him... He had under estimated my level of experience hangin off the back of the group. Anyway, I made up about 25 yards on the bump past the mobile home park and almost a 100 yards on the grade up to Ira. His legs were fading. The last 25 yards came just past Ira. While his legs were toast, I hadn't broken his will. I could see and hear the pain as I passed by. He picked up my wheel again and we made a good dash for the city limit sign. Ya, we finished almost four minutes down from the lead group, but I think we both had a good run. It was a great work out, nobody stroked out, and none of the triathlon guys caught us from behind!
Ron (209 lbs.) Fogle