Getting more fit?

Getting more fit. That is the question right now. Sure, I've been struggling with this whole riding thing for awhile now, but I do believe that I had what one might call a breakthrough yesterday. I'm still not as strong as I want to be, or used to be for that matter, but there were signs that things were progressing. Signs that I've been looking around for now for a little while. Yesterday, I was able to complete the Saturday group ride.

Now, bear in mind, that this is just a group ride. Some use it as a race, or race simulation, but let's face the facts, it's still just a group ride. It can be quite spirited at times, and some other times, depending on who is on said group ride, it can be just a faster ride with a bunch of weekend warriors. This weekend, it was somewhere in between. As a friend of mine who was also on the ride said, the hard parts were still hard, but the rolling/flatter parts were easier. In essence, everyone was drilling it up the climbs on the course, and on the flats, they were recovering. Hey, I'm all for it. It has been a LONG time since I actually did this whole ride. Over the course of the last year and a half or so, I've done portions of it here and there. I've ridden the harder parts of it, and I've ridden the easier parts of it. But, just a few weeks ago, I got dropped from the group ride at about only 30 minutes into it. So like I said, progress. I can't ask for much more. Getting out of shape, and losing fitness was so easy, getting it back, it's a bit harder. I think most of us know that. I was even feeling so good at the end of it, that I made a little half hearted attack out of the group to make a dash for the "finish line" (seriously, there is actually a line painted on the road where the group ride officially ends - the final sprint). Normally, I would not do such a thing. I would be one to sit in, wait for the sprint, and make my bid for "glory" at Saturday World Championships. Instead, I attacked. I did so because I saw the sprinters in the group all buckling down their shoes, sitting in the draft about 4 or 5 people back, and just waiting. I could not let them get away with this so easy. I jumped, got about 200 meters really quick, and 2 more guys jumped up to me, and we tried to motor it as long as possible. It sort of worked, because near the "finish" the group had shattered from about 20 people down to about 10 when all was said and done.

Post group ride, I took a nice easy ride home, and considered training for the day a success.

Next week, I start racing again. We'll see if I can get myself dropped in the first 15 minutes or so next weekend. If the race shakes out like the one I watched a few weeks ago though, I should be OK. Oh, and I'm going back to the cat. 3 ranks for now. No pro-am this coming weekend. That would be pure folly.