Puerto Rico Day 3

Puerto Rico Day 3

After yesterday and being pretty much an A- for the first two days I finally learned that I needed to be in the B group.   Several of the A group guys decided to move to B as well.   This one funny guy named Adrian called it the business class group.   The C group was the cappachino group and the A was the economy class.   The A group was leaving last without a guide so I knew I would have been in trouble if I went with them.  There was not going to be any group to fall back in so I would have been lost.    The B group was really nice.    I was a giant pack so it just carried you along.  The A group was only about 20 people so if we were single file we were still catching some wind in the back.  

I did enjoy riding with the B group but the thing I did not like about it is that it made me mental.   There were so many people so there was a higher chance of crashing.   When we did down hills no one really held their line.   I found myself moving out of my line to avoid a crash.  Still this was a much easier group to ride with.   The mileage for this day was 137 miles…..I think.  All A,B and C groups rode the last 37 or so in together.   This was fun but my hands sure hurt.   I had to stay on the breaks since there were so many riders.  I hit a huge hole….staying in my line and my bars sort of loosened up.   This was a hard 36 miles in my opinion.   It just seemed to drag on forever but when we finally got to the finish it was all worth it.

So I think there were over 400 riders  doing this great event.   We rode almost 150 the first day, 100 or extra the second day, and then 137 the third day.  There were riders of all shapes and sizes at this great event.  I  like to consider myself a natural endurance athlete.  I was struggling and really amazed at how well everyone was riding it.   Were they all faking it?    I felt  like hell when I got done.  Sure I would do it all over again.  I was just really impressed with everyone that was riding.    This is a great event and a good way to start off the season.  Next year I will not take two months off like I did this year.   The time off is a good thing.  I would rather let my body heal up and take the mental break rather than try to keep my fitness up and be burned out.   I did 4 ultra races last year and the body needed to repair.   Another month and my cycling legs will be back.  I by far was not the strongest girl there.   There was this one girl Stephanie from the Shama team in Houston that was really kicking butt.   She made it look so easy.  When I saw her yesterday she looked all fresh and perky.  I was feeling rather trashed and fluffy.  Sometimes I wonder how I finished the races I have done.