Today Vanessa and I rode the last organized ride before the MS150. Luckily the wind was not nearly as bad as it was yesterday. Vanessa said that since the MS150 was only a week away, she had to ride the 70 mile route today. So that is what we did.
I had a 7:00 ride marshal meeting so we got there early. I got to the meeting then headed back and finished getting ready. There were were easily over 1000 riders on this ride. We started out and I rode with Vanessa. She stayed on my wheel and we kept about a 15 mph pace. Once we got up to 359 we had the wind at our backs. Just before we got to 359, I stopped to help a lady change a flat tire. Vanessa kept going, so I rode hard to catch her. I had enough legs to hold 21-22 mph for the 7 miles to the next rest stop.
We got done around 1:30 pm. It was a much slower pace than I would have ridden by myself, but it was kind of relaxing. When I looks at my results, my HR average was 137. Considering that my zone 1 starts at 137, I spent a lot of time below Zone 1. :-) When I was catching Vanessa my HR would jump to to upper 160s-lower 170s.
Good ride. Next ride MS150. See you in Austin.
