Saturday Stow Ride: 7:00 - 9:30

[teamkimball]

Who is up for a group ride out of Stow on Sat. Easy Pace, 17 MPH.

[RPerson]

Likely. Will be keeping an eye on the weather so there's no repeat of this morning...

[vbrown]

will be riding out from the H2O with Redman to meet you for 7

[teamkimball]

excellent....

[dtower]

How fast was your 17mph effort last Saturday ?
I read that a few riders felt the burn of Kimball .

D

[teamkimball]

AC
I will send out a few emails to see if I can find somebody..


SK

[RPerson]

I'm going to be a morning judgement call on this... not that I trust them anymore, but the forecast for late tonight isn't looking promising for safe riding in the early morning. If I'm not there right on time I'm not coming.

[teamkimball]

Let's be smart about this, but I just checked and I don't see any rain in the plan... My fingers are crossed for good condiditions.


FYI.......... If anybody is interested I am planning on doing some extra credit. I may head out around 5:30 to log a few extra miles before our ride. Does anybody want to meet me??? I was thinking of riding up toward Harvard center.

[PatrickK]

AC,

In past years we have had a fairly large group for the Saturday morning stow rides and often broke into 2 groups based on speed.
Once the weather gets better, we will probably be starting this up again. I tend to ride in the slower group, as the
smack-talking SK chasers only get faster(well thats only because they draft) as the season progresses and marathon prep ends.

Its a nice loop, and after doing it a few times, you might find yourself leading newbies. I only got the group lost once :-;

As for tomorrow, I am planning on heading to Atkinson pool as close to 6 as possible. I need to be home early, so a ride is out tomorrow.
Maybe i'll see some familiar faces there.

-Patrck

[Bruce]

AC--

I would also note that the course is difficult as it includes several hills -- one is 2 1/2 miles and two others take 5 mins or so to get up. So the 17 mph includes those hills -- meaning the flats and rollers are 20+mph.

Patricks advice is good as far as the sat Am A&b group. Also look for aany ride that says "easy" (unless its posted by Steve Kimball or Neil Harrigan) or "recovery". I live in Sudbury and often do recovery rides on Mondays and Fridays.

Many road riders in this area have gotten their start with a group called the charles River Wheelmen. You can check out their website. They have rides on several days of the week and are extremely supportive of new riders. Many of their rides break into A, B,C and D groups by ave mph. The d group usually involves a ride leader that teaches how to ride in a paceline. There is a regular ride that leaves from hanscomb field on Thursday nights. But they also post touring rides in this area and that is a great place to start.

If you are thinking of racing, many people have gotten their start by doing NEBC's spring racing school. It spans several weekends. There are some classroom sessions at the Bedford Library where you learn about things like pacelining, pack tactcis, training, nuitrition, etc. Then there are on the road sessions held on quiet roads at Ft Devons on Sat AM. You don't have to be a member of NEBC. Many MRC riders have gotten their start there. You can check out the NEBC website.

Another good thing to do is to just go down to concord center on weekend mornings. There are literally hundreds of riders that go through there, many stop in the center to refill water bottles. You can hang out and wait for riders that look about your level and jump in with them. As spring goes on the PMC riders emerge too. Its great fun -- you let em get up the road and then chase 'em down. Then you chase down the next group...and the next. Automated interval training without the mental infarction!

Bruce

[teamkimball]

Hi AC
We meet in the Shaws Plaza on RT 117 in Stow and start next to the D&D. Come join us sometime for workout.

Steve

[michaelcole]

AC

If you are planning to jump in and do some racing, I think the best way to prepare for it is to try to ride with stronger riders (and probably get dropped a few times in the process).

The Wednesday nite ride (once it gets going) is a bit of a hammerfest and you will probably get dropped. But some of us are pretty strong riders and we still get dropped on occasion. It's a good way to aquire the mentality that you need to fight with all you've got to stay in contact with the group. In a race once you lose contact, you're done.

Look for posted group rides and show up anytime. Don't be afraid to get dropped. It's no big deal.

Let us know when you plan to do your first race. If you want to try to do a Wells Ave race you should have plenty of team mates who can help you out.

[RPerson]

With temps projected to drop another 5 degrees and the chance of more precip, I'm not hopeful for the morning. I'll get up in time and check outside, but if it's this cold and the roads still look wet, I'm going back to bed.