bikes and things

I’ve been going to the Thursday morning Rapha rides round Regents since September 2014 and almost always had a really good session. Some are better than others due to size of the group and how well everyone is working together, as well as how familiar you are with the people there that week.

Last Thursday was probably one of the best sessions I’d been to. We started in a group of six in the usual two up formation moving through from the inside and sitting on the front for around a minute before pulling through. Interestingly we went round clockwise for a change which was great. Riding the normal anti-clockwise has gotten to be pretty boring indeed so it was good to mix it up a bit.

That all seemed to be going well and felt incredibly smooth. Then the suggestion was made at one set of lights to do the last three laps as ‘through and off’. Whilst a good idea I’ve never seen it work in the mornings. It always ends up with someone surging when they should be easing off and then it just gets faster and faster until it just blows up in a mess. This usually doesn’t take long.

However this time, through a great deal of discipline and some guidance from Chris, it seemed to work. What a pleasure it was to have all six of us working this way. It was great to be trundling along at 40kph on the flat with just the sound of tyres on tarmac. It was a great work out without feeling like I’d be punched in the legs. That short burst of intensity with a relatively short rest was incredible. As there was only six of us the turns came pretty quick and I even managed to hold on to the end. It was like a shot of dopamine straight to brain. It felt so so good to be going so fast and yet the whole movement of the group be so smooth.

I absolutely loved it. So whilst the 5.30am starts don’t get any easier I’m always getting out of bed for this.