I did the BLN ride last night and for the first time this season, I actually blew up! I rode by myself to the bike shop at about 5:00. I had a north wind pushing so it wasn't bad at all. It's only about 8 miles so no problem. I picked up Steve and Charles at 6:00 at the shop and the we went south toward Norman. Steve decided we should go down Santa Fe to meet with the ride instead of our normal Western over to Penn route. He thought that we would be able to catch them sooner because we had a tailwind and the group would have a head wind. We went pretty hard down there and I was looking forward to catching the group to slow down! Well, we got to Indian Hill road and Santa Fe and saw a group of cyclist just as they made the turn. Sweet, we are right on time, I thought. As we got cloer to the group, I quickly realized that it was not the "A" group that we were trying to catch. So, we passed that group which turned out to be the "C" group. Yep, you see where this going, right? So, we hammered for another 5 miles or so and caught another group which again I thought was the "A" group, but to my dismay, it was the "B" group. I was so completely trashed by this point of chasing for 10 miles that I was content to sit in the "B" group and then ride home. But Charles said "no way, I'm not giving up now!" So, we continued on our chase. I could see the group up ahead and we slowly got closer. And a few miles later we were in the pack of the "A" group. I felt like I was going to vomit and was completely exhausted by this point. And the group was only getting started. It usually lights up about 2 miles after where we joined them so I knew it was getting ready to get fast. And sure enough, attacks started and lots of surging was going on. I was actually doing ok sitting in and following wheels but the second I got stuck in the wind, I could really feel myself fading quickly. The group rolled along together, for the most part, and then Smathers jumped and Charles was on his wheel and I tried to jump and go with them. And it was on the "wind side" of the group. I could not close the gap to them and I gasped for air as I watched the group roll past me. I kept telling myself, "breath, recover, spin, breath, breath" but it wasn't working. I rode easy for about 30 seconds and I thought I was recovered enough so I took off again to re-attach and I could not do anthing. My legs were like rubber and could not respond. So, I had to spin easy and try to get some life back into them. The group turned south on May to head back to Norman and Charles waited on me at the gas station. We rode back to the shop somewhat easy but we had a north/east wind to go up against. My legs hurt so bad last night and even today they are sore. So, I need to recover before this weekend so I can blow them up again at Joe Martin!