Are you for Riel?

Yes I am for Riel. But, that, my friends, is a really shitty time for a 100km, which was more than enough time and distance for me today and was the stop goal I had in mind when I started. But it was on a trainer so I will forgive myself. Or at least I will pretend that I spent the 100 km against the wind and gently uphill the whole way. Which my legs felt like I was from the first moment out of the hop.

The other actual goal was to stay aerobic because I need to do some serious fat burning to shed my waistline of it's winter insulation. I should start thinking about losing 5 or 8 (or 10) pounds before I have to climb Richter Pass in July.

The plan to stay in my aerobic zone worked well until Paul, our humble Are You for Riel host, and fellow Tribalistic teammate put in "Local Hero" the latest Sufferfest instalment, where I, Sufferlandian racer, had to chase down Fabian Cancellara in the the 2010 World Championship time trials (amongst other gem sprints from famous races past) - then it was bye-bye to aerobic zone for a little while.  Spartacus by-they-way, and by means of comparison, was able to pull off these max's in his recent TT in Oman... AND... he only came in 4th, thereby disappointing the world:

Stolen from Leopard Trek Facebook page. And, yes, that does say his max speed was 108km/hr.

Bye-bye to aerobic zone also meant bye-bye to my legs which were toast by 80km and the last 20 were the true "sufferfest" of the day. This, was thanks to a tough 2 hour bike yesterday at Pan Am Pool and me looking over at Jenn and announcing, "I'm going to stand for the last 10 minutes of tempo." Which made her say, "I'll do it too then." Which, of course, meant that I actually had to follow through with that. Me and my big mouth.

I really miss riding with people. These group rides seem to happen few and far between these days. I cherish them when they do, so thanks to Paul and the Wellness Institute for hosting a great (and cheap) event as always. Till next year.