saturday sufferfest - apr 30

[RyanC]

End of the month, end of a somewhat skewed training block for me but I felt good once I got rolling today. Nice to see a decent turnout on a day that threatened to continue the trend of defying the predictions of meteorologists. We got fairly wet between Matticks and Lands End but things cleared up suffciently to make the return trip less of a mud smorgasbord. As Dylan JC said during an especially damp part of the trip to Sidney: "this feels familiar...".

Nice bit of riding by everyone and things were smooth all the way back to Willis Pt road, where Josh, Shawn, and I turned toward the hills. I have to note, it was nice to see Greg riding so well as I have not had much time to group ride with him but I thought I noticed a big change in power from what I recall. The more strong rouleurs, the better the fest I say. I see this ride as a great way for riders interested in exploring or returning to racing because it's a less competetive environment in which to push yourself. Rather than feeling bad when I get stomped, I rather like seeing my fellow TSers shine. It's a good thing either way at the end of the day and, speaking personally, I really get a clearer idea week to week by experimenting with diet, rest, and ride intensity how my bodyt responds.

Unllike two weeks ago on this same ride, I was feeling good. Josh said the "sensations" for him were not so much but I gave it the stick anyway because I am a bad man and because I wanted revenge for getting stomped on Munn's on the prior ride.

Josh and I grabbed coffee and sandwiches at Fantastico and I rode home on warm spring sunshine. Even when I feel like baked dog sh*t, this has quickly become one of my favorite rides. Thanks for intiating this now staple of the TS schedule and for leading the fest, Josh.

R

[Josh.E]

The "sensations" were not good this week right from the get go. Right from the alarm clock going off, actually. I've been trying to figure out the reason, as I've come off a light week and expected to be fresh and kicking it today.
It was a really good ride though anyway. I was worried I was going to get dropped when the ride turned onto west saanich, where the speed usually picks up considerably up the firsst two hills, but I managed to stay on without too much problem there.
That last loop into the highlands is character building, especially finding the motivation to keep on pushing when you aren't feeling it. Unlike two weeks ago, when I could respond to Ryan's attacks, and got away from him over Munns (after looking him in the eyes and smiling at him to see how he was doing), this week there was no hope, and between when Ryan surged up the first hill on millstream lake and the end of the ride I got dropped..waited for..dropped....waited for...dropped. . I'm happy he was able to get his revenge. As much as it was hurting, at the same time I really enjoy trying to push myself mentally to my absolute physical breaking point.
On Ryan's last attack where he rode away from me on that steep wall on prospect lake road, I did absolutely everything I could to follow it. I thought if I could just hang on up there, I'd have a decent chance of being able to ride it in to interurban without him getting away. No such luck. I managed to match the attack for about 2/3s of it, and then exploded spectacularly.....could barely keep the bike moving over the crest....must've had over 190 heartrate. Complete physical failure up there, but not mental cracking. My little victory and consolation. I figure teaching yourself to do that is one of the best tools you can bring to a race.

Thanks to everyone who came out.

[jeremy]

Me, Simon and Deb did our own little sufferfest this morning, we were going to keep the pace low but go for distance. We departed from cook street and headed up to landsend rd, we luckily missed the rain, but got all of the nice wet roads to deal with, once we hit sidney the sun came out in it was glorious, summer is on it's way. We headed down w.sanaich to wallace, and I tried to talk the group into doing an observatory, with no interest in any more hills we continued on (but are doing it next week!).

Then the fun blast down interurban, were at the final sprint I looked at Deb (a dedicated sufferfest video user) and said " alright now time for a 10/10 effort, Simon had a little gap on us but Deb caught and passed him right before the line .

We stopped at the parking lot @ the knockemback grill for a drink of water, when there was a little accident, I didn't see what happened, but a turned around to Deb on the ground holding her knee, bleeding from her chin and Simon sprinting across the road in cleats to mac's to get some first aid. Deb was ok, although might have a sore knee for the next little bit, they decided just to head home from there before Deb's knee started to stiffen up, I continued on to downtown, then back up the water front and up to ferndale rd, where I bonked very hard, out of food and water I set a blistering pace of about 10 km/h back home. all said and done got 127km in today, haven't done that distance since N2V.
Great ride, looking forward to the Tour de Vic

[Greg Miller]

End of the month, end of a somewhat skewed training block for me but I felt good once I got rolling today. Nice to see a decent turnout on a day that threatened to continue the trend of defying the predictions of meteorologists. We got fairly wet between Matticks and Lands End but things cleared up suffciently to make the return trip less of a mud smorgasbord. As Dylan JC said during an especially damp part of the trip to Sidney: "this feels familiar...".

Nice bit of riding by everyone and things were smooth all the way back to Willis Pt road, where Josh, Shawn, and I turned toward the hills. I have to note, it was nice to see Greg riding so well as I have not had much time to group ride with him but I thought I noticed a big change in power from what I recall. The more strong rouleurs, the better the fest I say. I see this ride as a great way for riders interested in exploring or returning to racing because it's a less competetive environment in which to push yourself. Rather than feeling bad when I get stomped, I rather like seeing my fellow TSers shine. It's a good thing either way at the end of the day and, speaking personally, I really get a clearer idea week to week by experimenting with diet, rest, and ride intensity how my bodyt responds.

Unllike two weeks ago on this same ride, I was feeling good. Josh said the "sensations" for him were not so much but I gave it the stick anyway because I am a bad man and because I wanted revenge for getting stomped on Munn's on the prior ride.

Josh and I grabbed coffee and sandwiches at Fantastico and I rode home on warm spring sunshine. Even when I feel like baked dog sh*t, this has quickly become one of my favorite rides. Thanks for intiating this now staple of the TS schedule and for leading the fest, Josh.

R

Thanks Ryan, it was a personal accomplishment to hang in with the five of you till Munn's. Thanks to Shawn who closed the gap for me on those two nasty hills on the first part of West Saanich, that made a world of difference. That is the great thing about TS, there are always stronger riders to push your limits.

[debh]

Knee is scraped up a bit, chin got the worst of it - 5 stitches and an awesome war wound. Low speed crash, my own fault, could have been much worse. Longest ride ever - all in all a really good day.