August 25: The Pros and Cons of Drafting


It's Saturday again, which meant that once again the team met up for our weekly muscle burn. The East and West team coaches elected to bring the two teams together today, so it was nice to have a bit bigger crowd than normal to train with.

The weather, though warm, was overcast and hinted the threat of rain. As long as there was no lightning, though, no amount of rain could stop this group, so we started out on our venture...a 30 mile bike ride and then a 4 mile run.

I knew that I wouldn't be going the distance today, not because I couldn't, but because I needed to preserve my energy for my very first triathlon (a sprint distance) tomorrow. Instead, I elected to go around 15 miles and take a short cut back, only to run 2 miles at most.

The bike ride took us through Island Lake (where my race would be the next day). I was biking with Coach Brian (pictured up top on the right, and that's Coach Kevin to my left, by the way) and fellow teammate Elysia. (You can also see her pictured with me in the August 19th Dragonmead blog entry.) I decided to draft Elysia since she was going at a good clip but where I could keep up with her.

Drafting is nice. It's basically a method for a cyclist to increase his or her speed or decrease their effort by lowering your wind resistance. So knowing I had to conserve energy for my race the next day, I stayed close behind Elysia for much of the route.

On our way back, we needed to brake and go left at an intersection. Before I knew it, I was witnessing Elysia flipping head over heels over her bike, landing on the road with a hard thud. Her brake had come off her (30 year old loner) bike and had gotten caught in the spokes of her front wheel. Because I was drafting so close, I had to swerve quickly to avoid her. Fortunately, my hands were in the right position to react quick enough. That was something that I never wanted to see, though I knew deep down that it was sure to happen sooner or later, if not to me then to someone I know.

Fortunately, Elysia wasn't severely hurt, though she does have some pretty bad bumps and bruises. (There is a reason why bike helmets should be used, folks.) Her uncle's bike, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. (You can read about her crash on her blog at http://elysiatnt.blogspot.com/). If you are reading this and you know of a small frame road bike that someone isn't using at the moment, a bike that someone may consider loaning out or selling at a cheap price to a college student, I encourage you to contact her. She's a real trooper and could use a helping hand.

After Elysia got a ride back in Coach Brian's car, I rode back and ran a couple of miles. It was nice to run off some of that adrenaline after witnessing that. Let's hope that I don't see, or am not a part of, anything like that in tomorrow's race.

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I'm almost there! Check out my progress at:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntmi/DunCAN

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