Cycling 1:35:27 [4] 50.7 km (1:53 / km) +250m 1:50 / km
ahr:146 max:182 slept:7.5
Tralee-Castlemaine-Farranfore-Castleisland Bypass-Tralee
Avg Cadence - 75rpm
Out with the Chain Gang again, same route as last week. Bit more restrained on the ascent and descent of the hill to Castlemaine, group was kept together, no one dropped, but felt good anyways. Wouldn't have minded going faster on the way down the hill.
Then the SHIT HIT THE FAN. 3 lads went off the front after we turned onto the Fieries road out of Castlemaine, I was a few cyclists back, and took a second to realise what these clowns were at. Decided, what the hell, lets go. So dropped the gears and tore off after then where they had got around 100m of a headstart. Slowly started to reel them in and finally caught up with them after a few times thinking would I make it over the gap. It was a tough push. So after this it was pedal to the metal all the way to Farranfore. Averaging i'd say around 1.30 min/km. Tough going. On the way into Fieries I asked how far this lunacy was going to last, and the response was to "Farranfore anyways". So that had me thinking that they might go further, aahh. We stopped in Farranfore thankfully as one of the lads wanted to check his gears. Our speed session lasted for about 10/11km of rolling roads.
Just out the road from Farranfore I had a puncture, felt something taking the turn onto the Castleisland road but didn't last much longer. Shouted for a pump since I only ordered a replacement last night. One of the lads came back to me as I changed the tube. Lost some time but stopped the watch. 3 other lads stopped so we started moving again but at a handy pace. Caught the other lads before Castleisland and then onto the road back to Tralee. Thought there was going to be a headwind but wasn't as bad as expected.
Nice cruise into Tralee then but it kicked off again by Ballygarry House Hotel for a sprint, again I got caught on the hop, need to work on that for future spins. Pushed hard to catch up but didn't push on since I didn't know where I was sprinting to. Checked afterwards so next time i'll be out to do some damage if there's a sprint:-)
These kind of spins are fun, you'd get over the pain of the hard stuff, they are even kinda fun, you and your chariot against the other chariots and their riders.