Saturday Fast Group Ride

I got in a great training ride today. I rolled over to Food Lion in Blythewood and hooked up with 7 others for a big loop around Fairfield County. Everyone was killing it on the rollers out there and I was getting in some hard efforts even when I wasn't on the front. When I was on the front I usually rode around threshold pace or a little higher.

Late in the ride on the climb into Ridgeway, Rich attacked and I ultimately chased him down, then set a fast pace (520 watts for 50 sec) up the steep hill near the top. After regrouping, we headed back down 21 to Blythewood with a tail wind and covered 5.5 miles at 27 mph as a series of attacks split us into two groups.

I ended up with 88.7 miles in 4:03 at 22 mph with an NP of 251 watts. The ride felt pretty hard. For me a .77 IF is about what I would expect to see for a race of the same duration. My legs are toast right now from the effort. Some guys had IF's much higher on this ride, and I can only imagine what they must feel like.