Last night was my third Tuesday night ride. Legs still felt a little dead (apparently my glycogen stores remain depleted from Saturday despite my best efforts to consume inappropriate amounts carbs). Since I did not expect to be rocking it out with the big boys, I tried to keep things interesting by trying out the lap feature on my garmin. The route was ~15 miles and each 5 mile lap was faster than the previous. Cool! 22, 20, 18 minutes for each 5 mile segment and the last 5 were on the nasty part where there are 2 short back to back climbs with gradients of ~15 & 12%. On the first of these final two I was working hard at staying solidly in middle place, 5-6 guys of the front and 6-7 behind. I wanted to really push and try to stay close to the front without having my heart and lungs divorce me and I was quite happy with the whole gearing, cadence, effort thing until..... one guy passed, the O2 debt prevented a memory formation of exactly who. Since I was feeling OK, I decided to kick it up and briefly was able stay on the wheel. Not for very long but it felt good to know I had something left in the legs as I was nearing the top.
I have to admit, those 5 seconds were the highlight of last night's ride. While I did blow up at the top, I did so willingly and with forethought.
One final note. I almost did not go out last night but I was just 12 miles short of my 200 mile monthly goal so that motivated me to get out and ride. This is more distance in March than the previous 2 years combined.
I have to admit, those 5 seconds were the highlight of last night's ride. While I did blow up at the top, I did so willingly and with forethought.
One final note. I almost did not go out last night but I was just 12 miles short of my 200 mile monthly goal so that motivated me to get out and ride. This is more distance in March than the previous 2 years combined.
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