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Post by dgaddis1 on Nov 29, 2012 7:58:42 GMT -5
Get someone a lot faster than you to ride your wheel.
I do the AJBW Weds. night canal ride nearly every week. I work a block away from the shop, so it's a nice convient ride on a fun trail with a great group of folks. Generally I hammer each lap around the trail pretty hard with the faster riders, then hang out at the trailhead chatting, catching my breath, and waiting for everyone to regroup. I'm pretty quick around the loop, not the fastest guy by any means, but not slow. My fastest recorded time was at the Canal Crown this year when I did an 11:26 lap.
Last night Nate Z came out on his new MTB he built himself. Nate is fast, a lot faster than I am. On the first full lap around the loop I went out hard like usual, and was the first one out on the trail in our group. It didn't take long before Nate was on my wheel. He's got a loud set of hubs, so when he's coasting you can hear it. He was coasting a lot, even though I was going hard. I offered to let him come around but he said he was okay, so I rode flat out as hard as could the rest of the loop. I never did shake him, not even a little, and he was still coasting most of the loop it seemed. But when we finished the loop I knew that it was my fastest night lap EVER. I was spent and rode easy the rest of the night.
I had a GPS app running on my phone last night, and when I looked at it once I got home I realized it said I did an 11:36 that lap!! That's probably not super accurate, but I'd guess it's within a few seconds of actual time. Assuming it is right, it's only 10seconds off my fastest lap ever, which was in the daylight, on a geared bike. I was on the single speed last night, which is a slower in the two big-ring straight-ish sections of trail.
So: if you wanna go faster, find someone faster than you and try as hard as you can to out run them. Even if there's no way you can. It's worth the effort.
I do the AJBW Weds. night canal ride nearly every week. I work a block away from the shop, so it's a nice convient ride on a fun trail with a great group of folks. Generally I hammer each lap around the trail pretty hard with the faster riders, then hang out at the trailhead chatting, catching my breath, and waiting for everyone to regroup. I'm pretty quick around the loop, not the fastest guy by any means, but not slow. My fastest recorded time was at the Canal Crown this year when I did an 11:26 lap.
Last night Nate Z came out on his new MTB he built himself. Nate is fast, a lot faster than I am. On the first full lap around the loop I went out hard like usual, and was the first one out on the trail in our group. It didn't take long before Nate was on my wheel. He's got a loud set of hubs, so when he's coasting you can hear it. He was coasting a lot, even though I was going hard. I offered to let him come around but he said he was okay, so I rode flat out as hard as could the rest of the loop. I never did shake him, not even a little, and he was still coasting most of the loop it seemed. But when we finished the loop I knew that it was my fastest night lap EVER. I was spent and rode easy the rest of the night.
I had a GPS app running on my phone last night, and when I looked at it once I got home I realized it said I did an 11:36 that lap!! That's probably not super accurate, but I'd guess it's within a few seconds of actual time. Assuming it is right, it's only 10seconds off my fastest lap ever, which was in the daylight, on a geared bike. I was on the single speed last night, which is a slower in the two big-ring straight-ish sections of trail.
So: if you wanna go faster, find someone faster than you and try as hard as you can to out run them. Even if there's no way you can. It's worth the effort.
