Long ride this morning. No hills or intervals, just riding for a long time. Headed out on the P5 and it was good to get a long ride in on the bike. It was my first ride on the bike since Cairns, so nice to see everything is working like it should.
Since it was a long steady ride I thought I would head out to the freeway and jump on the triathlete highway. The triathlete highway is what I call the cycleway that runs alongside the freeway. It runs uninterrupted for 70kms or so. Not inspiring, or even really interesting if I am to be honest, but it serves a purpose. For a lot of triathletes that purpose is Ironman training. Bit quiet this time of year, since for a lot of locals it is the off season. Bit soft really, off season just means getting on a plane to race.
A simple description of my ride would be, ride to the freeway, ride with a tailwind for two hours, turn around, ride into a headwind for two hours, ride home. Pick the bit that wasn't very fun. Luckily the headwind wasn't an absolute heart breaker, but it was a bit soul sapping. I got there in the end, but was a little drained by the time I rolled into the drive at home. The steep hill a few kms from home never seemed quite so painful before. Although as my caring wife rightly pointed out to me when I said the hill was hard, 'lucky you weren't trying to run a marathon'. Groan....
The ride was good, but I had a slightly annoying experience on the ride back into the wind and I am still not sure how I feel about it. I know some people get really irate when others draft off them, particularly if the draftee doesn't take a turn at the front or or anything. I used to work with a guy who would often regurgitate his rage on me about the latest imagined slight on his ride to work from some guy who wouldn't take a turn. For me I don't really care, if somebody wants to sit on my wheel then that is fine with me. If they don't to take a turn on the front I also don't really mind, since if they did I would drop back out of their draft zone anyway. But on the ride back into the wind today I passed a guy who then jumped on my wheel for around 40kms or so. It was a long hard way into the wind. Then when I turned off, not a word, not a thanks or anything. Now I am not expecting him to pledge a life debt or anything, but at least a 'hey thanks for carrying me for the last hour and a bit' would have been appreciated. I don't want to be one of these guys who gets worked up about this sort of thing, but I will admit that it did annoy me a bit. Sitting on a guy's wheel for five minutes before heading off is one thing, I wouldn't really expect any acknowledgement for that sort of thing. But 40kms, c'mon give me something.
Anyway, tired now.
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