OSU/OU - Team Ride

Two weeks or so ago (2/25/2006) UO trucked up here for a good ole fashion meet the team ride. The plan for the day had been to rendezvous at the Bean, Corvallis, and then ride the OSU road course. Normally we depart around 10, but noon had been settled upon as it would make the duck migration a little more relaxed. Well, the beavers were all at the bean at noon, but the ducks they were over an hour late! Was it the migration, or are they just lazy, I don’t know but come race day we won’t be waiting.

Team UO, while punctuality might not be a strong suit was impressive in size and support. Team UO arrived fully decked out in their new race kits looking very impressive, the OSU kits are still in the process of production. I'd thought the OSU team was fairly strong in size but compared to the quacks we are tiny. UO team has a full woman’s team and men's A, B, and C squad. In addition to riders, UO arrived with support! Yes support, a wheel wagon driven by the official UO race mom.

With the late departure, the ride plans were modified, instead of doing 3+ laps of the Decker loop race course the plan was changed, 2-laps. The plan was to chill out to Decker, once at Decker it would be a hammer fest up the climb then the group would re-group at the summit and rinse lather and repeat. For me, the intensity of the ride out to the base of Decker was chill to light tempo, then the assault up the climb left me gasping as the real climbers spun their cranks. Once the re-grouped at the summit the tune for the second lap was much the same as the first. Not wanting to completely shatter my legs, I fell off the lead groups while spinning up the climb on lap two. At the top and we again re-grouped and then the respective teams split up. Some of the UO riders dropped down to repeat the climb again, the rest of us and the majority of the UO team just turned around to head back in.

Descending back down Decker, I decided to open the legs up a bit. As our resident team beef cake, 6'2" 177 lbs, I lead the decent. Flying down Decker we caught, passed, and shelled the returning UO riders, before dropping our pace to a more reasonable rate. Once back the plan was for the OSU A-Team, Murdock, BA, and Face, to switch into TT gear and regroup at the cycling pad. In TT gear on TT bikes we road out for what will hopefully be the first of many team TT practices. Team TT's are tricky and very different from individual TTs. The speed and intensity of team TT’s can be higher due to drafing, but drafting also adds a whole host of complications. Our initial pass at the course was very promising but also indicated there is work to be done here too. So much training so little time.

Once back in for the day, I downed a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, drove up to my parents place for dinner and final preparation for the following days adventure the Jack Frost-TT.

Overall Day Rating: Hard
Intenisty: High
Road dace training length: Medium
Ultra Distance training length: Low

Coming Attractions:
- Jack Frost TT
- Training Update