Long Ride

I finally picked up my bike from the LBS and everything is actually fixed!!  The power tap cable was replaced and the new one was installed.  I got them to throw in a free tune up for all the troubles.  Yah!

This morning I rode with a bunch of people from the Markham Triathlon Club (I didn't know it existed).  Its a loosely organized group of triathletes that communicate via Google group.  Last week they started riding at 8:30 am which was way too late for me.  Clearly not a lot of them have kids.  This week they were meeting up at 8:30 am again but Rom had to start earlier as his kid had a birthday party in the afternoon so I met up with him at 6:30 am but rode 40 minutes in the basement first.  The three of us rode for 45 km and then met up with the rest of the group.  It was a pretty big group of almost 20 triathletes.  Clearly the biggest group I've ever rode with.  I was a little tired from the previous ride but it seemed to take forever to get going.  The disadvantage of riding with a big group.  We took off and there were a lot of fast riders.  I struggled to keep up when I got a flat tire.  Rom waited for me while I fumbled around with the tire when another rider heading south bound stopped and asked if we needed help.  I said we were ok and then he asked me if my name was Takeda (yes).  It was Peter F.  He's my younger brothers' friend and has been been doing triathlons for years.  I saw him at Muskoka 70.3 two years ago.  Small world!  He's also with NRG and going up to their IMMT training camp next month so that will be good to know someone up there.  All this chit chat had Rom getting impatient as I continued to fumble around with the tire.  He actually grabbed the tire and put the inner tube on for me as I was talking to Peter.  I emptied my saddle bag and looked to inflate my tire with the CO2 cartilage but had forgotten  to put the value in the saddle bag.  Once again, I had forgotten a critical piece for my saddle bag and it goes to show the importance of riding with someone else.
 
Finally we were back on the road and Rom hammered it to catch up with the group but they were long gone.  I was bagged and struggled to keep up with him but he dropped my like a bad habit despite trying to draft off him.  We finally reached the turn around point and I was bagged.  We rested for a couple of minutes and then headed back home.  I knew this was going to be a painful ride as I was pretty tired and I was running low on water.  Before I started riding, I drank one 710 ml (24 ozs) bottle of water and then during my indoor ride, I drank another bottle.  During the first part of the ride, I drank another bottle which I refilled when we were meeting up with the group.  During the second part of the ride, I drank another four bottles of water and mixture.  Heading back home from the turn around, I had less than one bottle of water and mixture.  This was going to be trouble as it was warm and I always drink a ton of water and we were about 45 km from home.  Rom put the pedal to the metal and I tried to draft off him but he was too strong and left me behind but at every major intersection (about 5 km apart) he stopped and waited for me to catch up.  We stopped at a garage and I asked to refill my bottle but they only had water from a well and they advise me not to drink it.  I kept falling further and further behind until we hit a golf course and I stopped off in the club house.  I filled my bottle and drained it and refilled it again.  I immediately felt so much better and in fact I was able to keep up to Rom for the rest of the ride home.

This was the longest ride I've been on and including all the stops and flat tire, my total time was seven hours but my actual ride time was 5.5 hours, rode 145 km and drank about eight bottles of water/mixture for about 5.6 liters (about 1.5 gallons).  I think I'll have to make some adjustments to the new bike fit as I felt uncomfortable with the current set up.  Next week Rom wants to go 160 km....ugh.