Saturday sufferfest jan 22

[Josh.E]

Amazing ride this morning. I haven't suffered like that on a sufferfest in a while. Strong group out this morning. Dylan in particular had too much power for standard issue cranksets, and likes to force them to fall off with his leg muscles.
We headed around the water then out towards Sidney until Chris flatted just before the mctavish overpass. At that point we decided we wanted more of the 7 degree weather around the waterfront, and less of the 1 degree weather out towards sidney, so we headed back in the way we came and did a reverse waterfront. The pace was steady and hard the entire ride. Chris, Greg and Sylvan peeled off in uplands/oak bay, and shawn and I ended up riding the final stretch into beacon TTing side by side, keeping the pace as hard as we could manage. I remember saying "almost done" to shawn at one point just after king george, as all I wanted at that point was the pain to end.
Good feelings similar to the end of a longer race though vs our shorter A+ ride blasts. The pain is less acute, the cardio isn't pushed as high, and it's more about fighting the body as it starts to give in to general fatigue and lose power, and screams at you to stop. When we reached beacon hill, both of us were DONE.

[leftcoaster]

Marcus and I stopped for Dylan, and when we passed you we weren't sure why you were stopped so we kept on. Marcus headed straight back from Sidney and I did the full 85km route.

1 degree wasn't that cold......................

[sylvan]

it's more about fighting the body as it starts to give in to general fatigue and lose power, and screams at you to stop.

I stopped when I heard the screams. Unfortunately, I started again and tried to do the Sufferfest/Oak Bay double. It was pretty grim for awhile. I tried to look within to find a happy place full of joy that would overwhelm any sensations of fatigue and despair. It didn't work too well so I decided to give up and fall off the pack gracefully instead of being cannonated out the back. A bunch of Burnside regulars made the ride massive, probably about 22 ended up in the 'A' pack - that's giant-sized. Thank you to everyone who made today such a horrible, but hopefully character-building experience, especially birthday-boy Josh for being the inspiration behind Saturdays of suffering.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64611452 (Sufferfest)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64611444 (Oak Bay)

[dreeves]

My 'sensations' were feeling pretty good at about the 25 k mark when thankfully, my crank fell off. I don't think I would have had any sensations by Sidney. Falling off the 'fit' train sucks ass. Slowly but surely inching my way back. Happy Birthday, Josh. Glad you had a good ride today.

d

[Greg Miller]

It was a great ride today. I hung on by a thread and with short wimpy pulls to Sidney and back, but fell off going up Caddy bay into Uplands. The return part of the ride felt ok until getting out of the saddle, where the empty pains kicked in. I pushed through around the waterfront thinking I saw Chris ahead once or twice, but it may have been a delusion. Went around Beacon Hill but the rest were obviously long gone.

90k door to door - I haven't done that for a long time. I can always gauge the quality of the ride by the difficultly of walking up and down stairs in the afternoon. Today was a good one.

[shawnc]

When we reached beacon hill, both of us were DONE.

I can confirm this. I remember saying to Josh as we hit Beacon Hill that I was finishing at a crosswalk up ahead. He took this to mean that we should sprint, which was definitely not my intent.

I was more tired on the way back, but the daylight lifted my sagging spirits. I forgot what it's like to ride outside in the sunshine!

It was 100 km for me door to door. I ran over some glass a couple minutes from my house and realized my back tire was flat about 100 metres from my door.

[Marcus]

I had a good day today after becoming very nervous at the start when only Josh, Shawn, Dylan, Sylvan and Greg were in the house. Fortunately Dave joined enroute. I managed to hang on until Mt. Doug park when as I was following Dylan his power dropped another crank causing a few bike length gap in front of him that I was never going to cross. So I stopped and rode with Dave to Sidney. From there I headed back to OBB to join their ride in Uplands. I think six other TS members were amongst the 40 or so riders between the two groups. Managed to hang fairly comfortably with group two until a moment of fatigue and the desire to go longer and slower caused me to stop digging in on Chalet Rd. Still 70 kms on the first loop and 80 on the second made 150 door to door with about 60 on my own.

[Lister Farrar]

I had a good day today after becoming very nervous at the start when only Josh, Shawn, Dylan, Sylvan and Greg were in the house. Fortunately Dave joined enroute. I managed to hang on until Mt. Doug park when as I was following Dylan his power dropped another crank causing a few bike length gap in front of him that I was never going to cross. So I stopped and rode with Dave to Sidney. From there I headed back to OBB to join their ride in Uplands. I think six other TS members were amongst the 40 or so riders between the two groups. Managed to hang fairly comfortably with group two until a moment of fatigue and the desire to go longer and slower caused me to stop digging in on Chalet Rd. Still 70 kms on the first loop and 80 on the second made 150 door to door with about 60 on my own.

If you keep that up Marcus, you'll have to take a camera on the bike in Sardinia to keep yourself from getting bored. Always wanted to see a guy in the break whip out a camera and get a quick one of himself leading.