This evening is one of my favorite weekly rides, the so called Metcalf Mauler. I like the group that shows up for the ride, usually about 10-15 cyclists, most of them are significantly faster than I find on my club rides. I did not run this morning becasue I am “tapering” for the Boston Marathon next Monday. I checked my training program, courtesy of Runner’s World Magazine. Hum, it shows Rest/XT today. I think that means rest from running and do some cross training. A perfect excuse to go hit the road on the bike.

Not doing a run before the Metcalf Mauler paid off. We have a fast 3-4 mile dash from the start before we hit the climb. The stretch just before the climb is usually into a strong head wind and today it was stronger than usual. The group usually splits apart here as it did today but I was able to hang with the front group. I even took my turn pulling taking the last long pull before hitting the hill.

My intention was to not push to hard today, I do have a marathon, remember. But I felt good and kicked it in from the start. Danny, a member of the Discovery Pro team Junior’s squad was riding with us and he kept right along side of me as we left the rest of the riders behind. It is kind of an ego thing for me to drop very good cyclists who are 15 years younger than I am and keep up with a teenager who has won a national championship for his age. But then I knew Danny was just pushing only as hard as needed to stay with me.

Anyway, it worked for me because by the middle mark, I could see I near a PR time. I kept up the effort, keeping my heart rate around 168-170 through the end. Danny pulled ahead in the last stretch, barely breathing. That was okay with me because I crossed the top marker with a time of 13:19, a new PR for me and 6 seconds off the prior PR. Below is some charts that show the climb. The split markers 1 and 2 are for the bottom and the top of Metcalf. From the split chart you can see my average heart rate was 165 bpm and aveage speed was 7.6 mph for the climb.

So the youngest and oldest rider were the first to the top! No, I was not the youngest rider, but felt like it today.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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