Every now and then I like to go back and look over my old blogs to see where I was and where I’ve come. Sometimes it’s a humbling experience and sometimes it’s an exhilarating one. This time it’s the latter.
On Tuesday I reached 1923 miles, and I still have roughly four and a half weeks left to ride. With any luck I’ll reach 2000 miles next week. We’ve raised $8,578 with about $800 more pledged to come in.
It’s truly overwhelming to me that people have been so generous and giving to our cause and to our mission. Although Amy is more optimistic than I that we’ll reach our financial goal, I know beyond a doubt I’ll reach my mileage goal and then some. Hopefully I can put in 2300 miles before the end of the year, which would be amazing.
Then we’ll celebrate with the first (hopefully) annual Victory Ride. Maybe some of you reading this would like to join us. We hope to team up with ACS to make this a yearly Long Island cycling event to raise money for cancer research, although perhaps not on January 1st every year.
But back to my main thought.
It was a year ago today that a fairly inauspicious occasion took place, but because of what happened yesterday I just had to celebrate and mark the occasion with all of you. You see a year ago today I took place in my very first A level ride and got my butt handed to me on a platter.
It all started when my friend Karen Gellert, who’s the Secretary of the Huntington Bicycle Club, talked me into joining the club. I’d only ridden solo or with her up to that point so it was a new experience for me. I went on about three B+ rides before she suggested that the B+ group was holding me back and I should think about riding with the A group. She was right, but I didn’t want to seem conceited about it.
So I went on my first ride the day after Thanksgiving and it was not pretty. I had celebrated my gratitude perhaps a bit too much, got too little sleep, didn’t eat a good breakfast, and didn’t hydrate enough. Needless to say, of the nine who went out on the ride I was the ninth one back in. The whole ugly story is chronicled in last year’s blog.
This year was a different story.
I’m older and wiser, and I planned ahead. I lubed and checked over my bike Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, before we headed out to New Jersey, I laid out all my cycling apparel and supplies. At the Thanksgiving celebration I limited myself to two beers over the seven hours, and drank about nine glasses of water - determined to stay hydrated. I didn’t overeat and I made sure that at the first sign of a headache I took some Advil so that I wouldn’t wake up with it (I’m prone to stress headaches).
However we got home later than we’d thought we would and when I woke up at 7:30 I started to think better of the idea. It was cold (34 degrees) and windy (steady from the W/NW at 6-10 with gusts to 12) and I thought I’d just wait until Sunday for my monthly ride. But my wife insisted it would make me feel good, and thanks to her I actually got up and started getting ready to go. Once again her encouragement helped me reach goals I myself didn’t think I could reach.
My main goal going out on this ride was simple … DON’T GET DROPPED!
I figured if I could achieve that one simple goal I’d be happy. I wasn’t planning on pulling too much, I wasn’t going to be suckered into sprints, I was going to ride my own ride on the hills, etc. The problem was this ride was feted as the Moore’s Hill/Lawrence Hill Road/Snake Hill Road triple, which meant we’d be climbing some of the nastiest hills on the North Shore of Long Island in quick succession - at least that was the plan. Now I’m an okay climber, but definitely not stellar. So my plan for this ride was just to hang on and stay with the pack, climb at my own pace up the hills, but always be able to stay in sight of the pack.
From the start I knew I had my work cut out for me. Of the seven of us that headed out, five were the same bunch from a year ago - Warren, Paul, Mel, Jeff and myself. I knew those guys were all solid riders who do a lot of riding - and for longer distances than the 25 round trip I normally do. I also gathered from the pre-ride conversation that the other two guys - Don and John - were also very strong riders who do a lot of climbing and riding with fast groups.
I mentally gulped and started preparing myself for a serious spanking.
As we headed out it wasn’t too bad and I held on really well. After about 8 miles the group started to split up a bit. It was Warren (the rabbit) taking off with Paul, Don, and John with him. Then there was me trying to bridge up, and Jeff and Mel following about 200 meters behind; and it stayed all the way up through Sweet Hollow Road, and to the first regrouping. At that point I latched onto Warren, determined to try to stay with him.
He’s the father of one of the kids I know from the High School and last year when I was struggling on the way home he kindly told me to latch onto his wheel, and he would pull me for a while so I could rest and get my energy back up. Problem was I couldn’t even do that without dying after about 500 meters. This year I wanted to try to stay with him and not get dropped by the group. I did pretty well … and then we started up Stillwell.
“This is it,” I thought. “I’m on my stomping grounds. I’ll fly up and then wait for them at the top.” I thought if I did that I could then just sit in the rest of the ride until Moore’s Hill and maybe I’d have a chance. Unfortunately, the other guys didn’t read the script and they blew by me halfway to the top. If I’d been smart I’d have latched onto a wheel and stayed with them. Instead as demoralized as I was I decided to just climb at my own pace, and I knew I wasn’t dropped since Jeff and Mel were still behind me so I wouldn’t get lost. However, I felt strangely good. I didn’t have the fatigue that I’d had last year when we got to the top, and I’d been hydrating every mile or so. I actually felt pretty fresh, so I decided to try to stay with the leaders from there on.
And I never went to the back of the pack again!
I found that by drafting, taking turns pulling and really attacking the small climbs to Glen Cove I was able to keep up with everyone. When we got to Glen Cove and I was at the front with the other riders I had my first victory - because last year I’d been dropped twice on the way to Glen Cove. At the break Warren and Paul both made comments about how improved I was as a rider and they both noticed I was on a new ride (leave to a cyclist to notice these things - bike envy). I told them how much I’d been riding I told them how much I’d been riding and felt pretty proud of myself. After the break I started attacking all the climbs with vigor. I felt really good and since I’d been hydrating so much I felt strong.
Now came the big test - the three big hills.
I do have to confess here that I scoped out the trifecta climb on Tuesday on the way home. I rode the three hills so I could strategize what I’d do on the climbs and how and when I’d stand and attack. On the way to the first of the climbs I stayed at the front, took a number of turns pulling and setting the pace and I was loving the day. It was still cold and windy (it seemed we never got a tailwind, even when we headed East) but strangely I didn’t seem to mind it.
When we got to the base of Moore’s Hill, I’d been pulling for a while but I felt good. I attacked and immediately knew I was going to be alright the rest of the ride. John passed me standing up in the saddle and I stood up with him for a while, but then I just sat back down when I remembered that I had two more hills to climb. I figured I’d just keep him in my sights and catch him on the descent. That plan almost worked until we realized we should hold up for the others because they were nowhere in sight!
I couldn’t believe it - I felt like a beast!
When they finally came down and we regrouped, we thought better of it decided to forgo Lawrence Hill. But we still headed off to Snake Hill. Mel gave us a route that was a big loop away from Moore’s Hill and back that was very winding and kept constantly climbing, but I attacked early on and stayed at the front all the way back to Moore’s Hill.
At that point, Mel took off and I went to catch him while the rest of the group followed behind. I caught up to him just as we turned to head up to Snake Hill to let him know the rest of the group were about 200 meters back. He told me to soft pedal to let them catch up, which I did. But I noticed that even my soft pedaling was 16mph, and I was pushing against the wind and hardly pedaling. I hit the base of the climb and started attacking standing up and pumping. About 2/3 up I could tell John was on me (I had sat back down and was just pedaling far back in the saddle) so I stood up again. I was determined not to be caught on this one. We pulled up and waited for the others who were about 50 meters back. Warren once again took off and I stayed with him, eventually pulling in the front for a large chunk of the ride. John and Don peeled off and it was just the five of us, and I never let go.
Of course, I was riding so hard I missed the turn back to the station. By the time I turned around Warren had made the turn and, though I tried to catch him, I ended up being the second wheel in - my stupid bad luck.
But the big point was, no one had to wait for me this year and I wasn’t the last in. And that is a huge victory.
Am I getting ready to be a Cat racer? Or even a weekend racer? No way -when do I have the time? But I can say that while I’ve been riding thousands of miles waging this war against cancer, it’s also made me a better rider. I’ve devoured everything I can read in Bicycling Magazine, CyclingWorld.com and other sources to find tips to become a better rider and some of those tricks paid off on this ride.
Might I get dropped on the next A+ ride when Mike, Scott, Don and the other serious triatheletes and racers take part? Quite possibly. But when Warren and Paul stuck their hands out to me at the end of the ride to tell me what a great job I did and how much I’ve improved, I have to say I was proud of myself. And I think I was even more proud of the reason behind it. I’m a better rider now because of the riding I’m doing to fight cancer.
This journey has changed me, possibly in more ways than I’ll ever know; but for now it’s nice to have this small fringe benefit.
Although the January 1st ride is shorter than they normally do, the guys said they might register and make it a part of their ride on that day. Whatever the case, I hope all of you reading this will consider being a part of this ride and climbing a small hill or two on New Year’s Day to help fight another battle in the war against cancer - and to celebrate the small victories that will eventually help us find a cure.
