Training the Flat Roads of South Florida

It has been some time since my last post. The last week of school tied with the lack of wireless at my parents' place in Florida has made for difficult blogging. I'm back though, sipping on a nice frothy cappuccino at a local cafe.

This week has been one of my biggest training weeks to date. I feel unstoppable on long rides, pushing onward, onward and onward. With a mix of a few time trial intervals and some fast cadence drills, the time seems to roll by, despite there being only one road worth training on. I ride up and down a road called A1A. The only hills this route provides are the many bridges that connect the peninsula and mainland of south Florida.

Approaching one of the bridges, on the way into Fort Lauderdale, a 65 year old, ex-Maple Leaf Cycling Club rider, charged up the bridge at over 23 miles/hour. I held onto his wheel just fine, but was amazed at his horse like engine. After meeting up with him halfway through the ride, I knew I was stuck with him when he told me in French-accented, choppy English, " I ride with you." This is after I told him I had two to three more hours of riding.

He eventually told me that he feels as though he has gotten stronger after every year of riding. He used to race and it showed. I found out that he lives in Quebec for half of the year and he basques in the sun, on his bike of course, the rest of the year, averaging 250 miles per week. After I told him he should race at least some time trials, his wisdom spoke, "I have nothing to prove." I sensed he used to dominate the Canadian and Midwest circuit. He may have even been professional; he didn't tell me either way.

All I can tell you is that this guy does some crazy stuff on the bike. At one light, he smoothly rode up on to the sidewalk while maintaining speed and then continued downward to spin through the red light. I didn't follow him in fear that my luck would run out. I had been stopped earlier in the ride by a police officer who thankfully only gave me a written warning. He rationalized, "It's close to Christmas, I'll be nice this time. But don't mess around because I'll get you the next time!" I spun by the little district yesterday and waved as I saw him get out of his cop-mobile. He smiled and waved back; a new friend with the dark side.

I seem to run into interesting people on almost every ride. I ended up riding with an elite south Florida team called Z Motion yesterday and being invited to their post ride all-inclusive buffet afterwards. We ate at a little canopied, open to the air, restaurant bordering the picturesque Inter-coastal waterfront near Fort Lauderdale. Eggs, bagels, fresh fruit, juice and coffee were all offered for post-ride snack. They were impressed by my riding and thought I was a local rider they knew. They said I ride like a squirrel up and down the pack, making choppy moves when I want to tear it up. I asked them if it was a bad riding style or shady, but they thought I rode well and that it is just a riding style. They are a great and fast bunch of guys who annually contribute massively to the multiple sclerosis rides.

This ride wasn't a good winter training ride, the race rather was more of what Joe Friel would describe as a "Christmas Star Group Ride." I burnt a lot of matches and ended up feeling wasted after the long training week. I looked at my power file to see many spurts of over 500 watts as well as an average at the higher end of a lively tempo ride. I won't be riding with this group much through the rest of the week to keep my training regimented. It did feel great to jump in and out of a peloton for a couple hours though.

I'm enjoying myself now just thinking about the hard work of the week. I'm resting up for the coming week of training and actually looking forward to the eventual return to the cold riding of Michigan's dirt roads with the roommates.