And the council has spoken--it's been a pretty long run of weeks now where something (mileage or gradient) has increased every week. It's time for a rest week. Though that's where the consensus ends. What exactly constitutes a rest week?
I've received some negative feedback on how I've elected to implement my rest week, but let's let the outcomes be the final judge. We will take the next week or so to assess whether more drastic resting measures are necessary. At worst, I can try again next week.
**Unrelated Update** Colorado means new data! Since my trusty old Target scale has kicked the bucket, I can only measure my obesity every few weeks. I am happy to report that I've crossed the halfway mark. At the beginning of this journey, I weighed in at a corpulent 120+ pounds. I'm now down to 111, so it's 10 down, 10 to go. If only food wasn't so very very delicious...
Sunday 05/24: 43.4 miles, about 3:30, Turkey Creek to High Grade Road, with a double back to do the steep part of HGR. A charmed ride with zero rain, despite the generally wet conditions. I felt pretty horrible in the beginning with a stomach ache, but felt progressively better. The path was very pretty and we even got some sunshine. This ride was shorter than I would have liked, but it was all quality stuff, with the climbing starting right away. There was a nice mix of steepnesses and a lot of changes in scenery... which is not naturally my preference, but it was a nice change of pace. I was worried about the second consecutive climbing day, but felt like I held up very nicely. I'm adjusting to this bike and the gearing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Still felt good towards the end, but the decision to head back was the right one, as the torrential downpour started immediately after we got into the car.
Monday 05/25: 58.5 miles, about 3:25, Peter's "Flat" Rolling Boulder ride. Our luck ran out with the weather on this ride, but it wasn't too bad. Headed out away from the mountains, past a llama farm (they are SO adorable!) and out into the plains outside of Boulder. Was just trying to enjoy a nice mellow ride, but somehow got goaded into doing a significant chunk at high intensity. I think I went about 45 minutes, starting under threshold and gradually accelerating. There was a nice stretch in there that felt just about threshold and surprisingly sustainable, but the problem was that there was a liberal sprinkling of hills that prevented me from settling into a rhythm. For some reason, this caused me to push harder and harder, until it stopped feeling very sustainable. Backed off and felt better pretty quickly. Saw a beautiful climb out by Carter Lake, but the clouds were closing in, so we turned back. Got rained on on the way home, but it wasn't that bad. It was actually really fun to go fast, and I was pleased that I could do it at all, since my usual diet these days consists almost exclusively of mellow effort levels.
Tuesday 05/26: Off, travel back home. A sad day :(.
Wednesday 05/27: Off. Legs feel really rested and good, the rest of me did not. I did manage to get up at 5 am, but decided to go back to sleep given how awful I felt and knowing that I was booked into meetings straight from 10 am to 8 pm. I felt really guilty about not riding, even knowing that it was the responsible decision to make.
Thursday 05/28: 45.7 miles, 2:31:26 (18.1 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Woke up extra early at 4:30 am to get this done before my first morning meeting. The darkness was a little scary in terms of not being able to see the crap on the road, but it was actually kind of peaceful and nice. Felt really good except for a few miles in the middle around where the dam is. Still managed to pick up my first > 18 mph! For some reason, I like that middle third of this ride the least. I had decided a while back that when I started consistently completing this ride in the 2:30 range, I would tack on the extra 5 miles or so to get to the North end of the River Trail before doubling back to Encanto Park... but I've been dragging my feet on implementing this because it would elongate the crappy middle section.
Another footnote to this day is that I ran for the first time today, rather serendipitously. Despite my valiant efforts to the contrary, I arrived 3 minutes too late to work, thus missing the team's departure for our offsite meeting. Not knowing how to get to my destination, I wasted another 4 minutes trying to figure out directions, leaving me 8 minutes to arrive. Thankfully I was wearing my running shoes with my new orthotics, per my podiatrist's recommendation, so run I did at a nice good tempo pace for about 5 to 7 minutes. It felt wonderful for about 200m after which it felt really horrible. Then after I arrived my hamstrings and calves started to seize up. They still do not feel very wonderful. Running is hard.
Friday 05/29: Off, shots. Man, I don't know how I ever used to run... my legs are still feeling shot. Just really tight and sore. Terrible. I hope this doesn't end up affecting tomorrow's ride. I've potentially got a big day planned!
Saturday 05/30: 105 miles, 7:39:45 (13.7 mph) Angeles Crest to Dawson's Saddle. An awesome super fun ride with Will and Ian. There were some grumblings along the way, but ultimately everyone made it happily to the peak before you descend into Wrightwood. A little rain and a little overcast, but it was really neat! We went at a nice mellow pace, so I felt good the whole way through. For some reason I felt inspired to hammer it a little bit on the last mile or so up to the saddle, feeling especially good at this point.
It was also my first time past Red Box on the 2, so there was plenty of amusing new scenery, and 7 hours actually goes by real quick with good company. I've been feeling really crummy (unrelated to cycling) this week, so I really appreciated this awesome ride. It also made me feel like the Wrightwood ride was definitely within reach some day in the near future. Lunch and dinner at Newcombe's Ranch. Felt a little barfy immediately after eating, but good times.
Training this week: 252.6 miles, 17:06:11
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Week 7: Allergies (05/17/2009 - 05/23/2009)
The plague of the yellow flowers has descended upon southern california... and that means bad times for me and respiration. Despite the fact that we've had little rain, the hills are alive--with the sound of labored breathing. I'm not really sure what they are... in fact, I'm pretty sure there are multiple varieties of pollen-y death, but they are here in force.
As far as I can tell, the yellow ones are the worst. Maybe its because they are the most common, but they are definitely the worst. They've been slowly gaining strength over the past few weeks, but now they are everywhere. I can smell them in the morning, just before my nasal passages close up. I would say that I can't wait for them to go away, but I know that when they do, it will be because of the sweltering summer heat, which brings challenges of its own. Oh, winter in California, how I miss you.
(P.S. Warning to those who may be headed to the Baldy Village area--don't even get me started on the plague of brown flies. *Shudder* They actually seem pretty harmless, other than being kind of nasty, but boy do they hurt when you crash into them descending at 45 mph)
Sunday 05/17: 78.2 miles, 4:46:02 (16.4 mph) Seal Beach the short way. Oooof. I definitely had low expectations for this ride, given that I woke up in the middle of the night in pain from the Ski Lifts ride. I had to empty my fridge of all ice packs and place them on my legs and take some advil just to calm the pain and inflammation. Somehow everything calmed down by the morning though, so off I went. It felt a little tired, but I just kept it super easy and it was fine. Felt loads better than last week's despite the fact that the Saturday ride was harder. Felt pretty good about this ride, and had some delicious delicious chinese food afterwards with the gang.
Monday 05/18: Off. Busy day at work, legs need a break after the weekend.
Tuesday 05/19: Off. Legs still feeling pretty trashed from the weekend. Also, insanely sleep deprived feeling. Blehhhhh....
Wednesday 05/20: 43.2 miles, 3:00:09 (14.3 mph) Angeles Crest to Red Box. This was a horrible ride, and I couldn't figure out why, until I came home and found yesterday's allergy medication untaken on the counter. Sometimes it doesn't feel like the Zyrtec really helps, but it just takes one day of not taking it to remind me how bad it can get. A normal person might take it easy on a day they didn't feel so good, but I was frustrated and cranky and took it out on the climb by raging against my tired legs. I was also experimenting with gear combos, and dropped my chain, which made me even more irate. I think I tired myself out doing weird little surges on the climb and felt kind of sluggish on the way home. Bah, humbug.
Thursday 05/21: 45.7 miles, 2:37:21 (17.3 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Tired. I really almost didn't get up to go on this ride... but I've already taken an extra rest day so far, so in the end I just couldn't justify it. For some reason I feel like the fatigue just never completely left my legs after the Ski Lifts. It wasn't a bad ride, I just felt like my legs had no zip today... and I was sad because this is the first Peter's Short Long Loop that hasn't been faster than the one before :(.
Friday 05/22: Off, shots. Travel to Colorado for the long weekend!
Saturday 05/23: 69 miles, 4:45:08, Peak to Peak Highway starting in Boulder, back through Nederland. The bad weather foiled the planned Trial Run of the Mt Evans Hill Climb route, but we got to do this awesome ride instead! Started on a really beautiful canyon path from Boulder, and climbed up to a mountain road that was optimistically described as "rolling" or "mostly downhill". It was really overcast and rained at one point, but I kind of thought that that added to the awesomeness. Peter may have disagreed. I felt a little uncertain at some junctures in this ride, but ended up feeling pretty good the whole way. I think I went more conservatively than I could have due to not knowing how much climbing was left. It actually felt kind of anticlimatic when the descent started. It felt like we were descending for a very long time, but the heavy ass steel frame was actually pretty sweet on the downhills. I was pleasantly surprised at not needing any (non existent) smaller gears.
Training this week: 236 miles, 15:08:40
As far as I can tell, the yellow ones are the worst. Maybe its because they are the most common, but they are definitely the worst. They've been slowly gaining strength over the past few weeks, but now they are everywhere. I can smell them in the morning, just before my nasal passages close up. I would say that I can't wait for them to go away, but I know that when they do, it will be because of the sweltering summer heat, which brings challenges of its own. Oh, winter in California, how I miss you.
(P.S. Warning to those who may be headed to the Baldy Village area--don't even get me started on the plague of brown flies. *Shudder* They actually seem pretty harmless, other than being kind of nasty, but boy do they hurt when you crash into them descending at 45 mph)
Sunday 05/17: 78.2 miles, 4:46:02 (16.4 mph) Seal Beach the short way. Oooof. I definitely had low expectations for this ride, given that I woke up in the middle of the night in pain from the Ski Lifts ride. I had to empty my fridge of all ice packs and place them on my legs and take some advil just to calm the pain and inflammation. Somehow everything calmed down by the morning though, so off I went. It felt a little tired, but I just kept it super easy and it was fine. Felt loads better than last week's despite the fact that the Saturday ride was harder. Felt pretty good about this ride, and had some delicious delicious chinese food afterwards with the gang.
Monday 05/18: Off. Busy day at work, legs need a break after the weekend.
Tuesday 05/19: Off. Legs still feeling pretty trashed from the weekend. Also, insanely sleep deprived feeling. Blehhhhh....
Wednesday 05/20: 43.2 miles, 3:00:09 (14.3 mph) Angeles Crest to Red Box. This was a horrible ride, and I couldn't figure out why, until I came home and found yesterday's allergy medication untaken on the counter. Sometimes it doesn't feel like the Zyrtec really helps, but it just takes one day of not taking it to remind me how bad it can get. A normal person might take it easy on a day they didn't feel so good, but I was frustrated and cranky and took it out on the climb by raging against my tired legs. I was also experimenting with gear combos, and dropped my chain, which made me even more irate. I think I tired myself out doing weird little surges on the climb and felt kind of sluggish on the way home. Bah, humbug.
Thursday 05/21: 45.7 miles, 2:37:21 (17.3 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop. Tired. I really almost didn't get up to go on this ride... but I've already taken an extra rest day so far, so in the end I just couldn't justify it. For some reason I feel like the fatigue just never completely left my legs after the Ski Lifts. It wasn't a bad ride, I just felt like my legs had no zip today... and I was sad because this is the first Peter's Short Long Loop that hasn't been faster than the one before :(.
Friday 05/22: Off, shots. Travel to Colorado for the long weekend!
Saturday 05/23: 69 miles, 4:45:08, Peak to Peak Highway starting in Boulder, back through Nederland. The bad weather foiled the planned Trial Run of the Mt Evans Hill Climb route, but we got to do this awesome ride instead! Started on a really beautiful canyon path from Boulder, and climbed up to a mountain road that was optimistically described as "rolling" or "mostly downhill". It was really overcast and rained at one point, but I kind of thought that that added to the awesomeness. Peter may have disagreed. I felt a little uncertain at some junctures in this ride, but ended up feeling pretty good the whole way. I think I went more conservatively than I could have due to not knowing how much climbing was left. It actually felt kind of anticlimatic when the descent started. It felt like we were descending for a very long time, but the heavy ass steel frame was actually pretty sweet on the downhills. I was pleasantly surprised at not needing any (non existent) smaller gears.
Training this week: 236 miles, 15:08:40
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Week 6: Tired! (05/10/2009 - 05/16/2009)
The mountains are tough. At this point, its hard to predict how each ride will affect me. I think I'm treading the line between improvement and overtrained. This week has had some great rides and some terrible rides, and Saturday's ride to the ski lifts was probably highly unadvised. It's definitely more complicated than flats.
The good thing though, is that these big rides just don't seem as epic as they did the first time around. Everything feels a little bit more manageable. Except for the ski lifts. I think that the reason I don't remember what it was like the first time is because I've repressed those horrible horrible memories.
Sunday 05/10: 78 miles, 4:56:54 (15.7 mph), a horrible frankenstein Seal Beach the short way. Ouch. This was not a good ride... I didn't anticipate how much Saturday's mountain ride would take out of me. It was one of those things where I started out vaguely exhausted and stayed that way the entire time. It wasn't that anything felt particularly bad, I just didn't have any speed. And Peter ate all of my gus. Felt tired and cranky.
Monday 05/11: Off, dropped Peter off at the airport in the morning and promptly went back to sleep. Given how exhausted I felt yesterday, I think it was a well deserved day off.
Tuesday 05/12: Off, unplanned failure. Legs were feeling fine, but sleep deprivation is taking its toll. Dozed guiltily for an hour after my alarm went off, until I just ran out of time to ride. Didn't really feel any less sleepy when I woke up.
Wednesday 05/13: 43 miles, 2:59:00 (14.4 mph), Angeles Crest to Red Box. Another late night at work, but I was determined to do this ride after yesterday's unplanned day off. Despite two consecutive off days, every bone in my body felt tired. Off to a sluggish start, wondering if today I'd just turn back at Clear Creek, but somehow I rallied once I hit the climb. I kept being bothered by the feeling that I was going slower than last week, but when I came through Clear Creek in 1:36 (2 minutes faster than last week), I decided to go on. Felt a lot better on this portion, very peaceful and nice. Got to Red Box in 2:04, and descended comfortably, finished feeling really strong, all of the tiredness was gone. So weird.
Thursday 05/14: 45.7 miles, 2:33:29 (17.8 mph), Peter's Short Long Loop. Hard to get moving in the beginning, for some reason I had trouble getting my cadence up, but that cleared up after about 20 minutes. Felt really good after that. Strong and consistent, felt completely relaxed and easy. After how terrible I felt in the beginning of the week, this ride was a real confidence boost. A time record on this loop by 8 minutes. There was a bee on my thigh for about 5 miles.... I was terrified of being stung, but then thankfully it flew off uneventfully.
Friday 05/15: Off, shots. So, so tired. I got 8 hours of sleep for the first time this week, but I didn't even feel rested when I woke up. I guess getting up at 5 am after working until 10 pm just starts to take a toll. Trying to decide whether to sleep in tomorrow and risk the high temperatures.
Saturday 05/16: 90.8 miles, 6:44:14 (13.4 mph), GMR to GRR to Baldy Ski Lifts (!), a highly ill-advised ride. I wasn't really sure why I felt compelled to do this ride TODAY, but I did. Maybe it's because Peter keeps talking about demo-ing the Mt. Evan's hill climb when I go there next weekend... I guess I wanted to feel competent at climbing, but unfortunately this kind of had the reverse effect. It wasn't a bad ride, 85 miles of it was just fine, but the 5 miles between Baldy village and the ski lifts were possibly, no absolutely, the worst 5 miles I've ever ridden in my life. There may be no shame in Granny Gear, but there's definitely shame in stopping mid climb--and I had to stop multiple times. I guess I figured stopping was still less shameful than bailing on the climb, so that's what I did. But I am now living proof that it IS indeed possible to climb at 3.7 mph, and not fall over. It was weird though, because I felt alright descending and going home, and didn't feel completely destroyed... I just completely imploded on this one steep section. Gotta figure out how to fix this, I will conquer the ski lifts... some day.
Training this week: 257.6 miles, 17:13:37
The good thing though, is that these big rides just don't seem as epic as they did the first time around. Everything feels a little bit more manageable. Except for the ski lifts. I think that the reason I don't remember what it was like the first time is because I've repressed those horrible horrible memories.
Sunday 05/10: 78 miles, 4:56:54 (15.7 mph), a horrible frankenstein Seal Beach the short way. Ouch. This was not a good ride... I didn't anticipate how much Saturday's mountain ride would take out of me. It was one of those things where I started out vaguely exhausted and stayed that way the entire time. It wasn't that anything felt particularly bad, I just didn't have any speed. And Peter ate all of my gus. Felt tired and cranky.
Monday 05/11: Off, dropped Peter off at the airport in the morning and promptly went back to sleep. Given how exhausted I felt yesterday, I think it was a well deserved day off.
Tuesday 05/12: Off, unplanned failure. Legs were feeling fine, but sleep deprivation is taking its toll. Dozed guiltily for an hour after my alarm went off, until I just ran out of time to ride. Didn't really feel any less sleepy when I woke up.
Wednesday 05/13: 43 miles, 2:59:00 (14.4 mph), Angeles Crest to Red Box. Another late night at work, but I was determined to do this ride after yesterday's unplanned day off. Despite two consecutive off days, every bone in my body felt tired. Off to a sluggish start, wondering if today I'd just turn back at Clear Creek, but somehow I rallied once I hit the climb. I kept being bothered by the feeling that I was going slower than last week, but when I came through Clear Creek in 1:36 (2 minutes faster than last week), I decided to go on. Felt a lot better on this portion, very peaceful and nice. Got to Red Box in 2:04, and descended comfortably, finished feeling really strong, all of the tiredness was gone. So weird.
Thursday 05/14: 45.7 miles, 2:33:29 (17.8 mph), Peter's Short Long Loop. Hard to get moving in the beginning, for some reason I had trouble getting my cadence up, but that cleared up after about 20 minutes. Felt really good after that. Strong and consistent, felt completely relaxed and easy. After how terrible I felt in the beginning of the week, this ride was a real confidence boost. A time record on this loop by 8 minutes. There was a bee on my thigh for about 5 miles.... I was terrified of being stung, but then thankfully it flew off uneventfully.
Friday 05/15: Off, shots. So, so tired. I got 8 hours of sleep for the first time this week, but I didn't even feel rested when I woke up. I guess getting up at 5 am after working until 10 pm just starts to take a toll. Trying to decide whether to sleep in tomorrow and risk the high temperatures.
Saturday 05/16: 90.8 miles, 6:44:14 (13.4 mph), GMR to GRR to Baldy Ski Lifts (!), a highly ill-advised ride. I wasn't really sure why I felt compelled to do this ride TODAY, but I did. Maybe it's because Peter keeps talking about demo-ing the Mt. Evan's hill climb when I go there next weekend... I guess I wanted to feel competent at climbing, but unfortunately this kind of had the reverse effect. It wasn't a bad ride, 85 miles of it was just fine, but the 5 miles between Baldy village and the ski lifts were possibly, no absolutely, the worst 5 miles I've ever ridden in my life. There may be no shame in Granny Gear, but there's definitely shame in stopping mid climb--and I had to stop multiple times. I guess I figured stopping was still less shameful than bailing on the climb, so that's what I did. But I am now living proof that it IS indeed possible to climb at 3.7 mph, and not fall over. It was weird though, because I felt alright descending and going home, and didn't feel completely destroyed... I just completely imploded on this one steep section. Gotta figure out how to fix this, I will conquer the ski lifts... some day.
Training this week: 257.6 miles, 17:13:37
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Week 5: Century (05/03/2009 - 05/09/2009)
100, the magical number. I've only done one other 100+ mile ride, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's likely that I'll hit the mountains this week or next, which means that my mileage will probably dip, so I wanted to squeeze this ride in before that happened.
It turned out to be an interesting ride. Last time, I remember basically being exhausted to tears, but I had KB for company so the distance and time went by pretty quickly. This time, it was harder mentally than physically. My wish for the wind to calm down from yesterday... did NOT come true.
This ride made me think about how fickle one's perception of the passage of time can be. The wind was really brutal (worse than yesterday) on my way down to Seal Beach, and for some reason, going slowly feels mentally taxing, in some strange reversal of the laws of relativity... it felt as though the passage of time itself had slowed to a crawl. At one point, I realized that my face had gotten fixed into a grimace for the past hour or so, but then it also occurred to me that I really wasn't exerting myself more than normal, I was just going slower.
I felt really frustrated and demoralized arriving at my halfway point a good 10 minutes behind the split that I needed to achieve my performance goals (sub-6 hours, > 17 mph). Things were not looking good for me and this ride at this point...
In hindsight it was only really bad for about an hour, but that hour felt like the longest hour of the entire ride. In contrast, my mood and even my perception of my level of tiredness improved drastically once I turned around and was now going at a good clip with the wind behind me. I was pretty blissed out for a while before the wind shifted again and I had to cope with the headwind again on the last segment.
Thankfully by this point, I had a new motivator--I realized that my goals, once seemingly lost, were within reach, if I rode a strong last 15 miles. And once again, when one is racing the clock, the passage of time speeds up to warp speed. I actually did ride a strong last segment, and was really happy with how much fight was still in my legs at that stage, but it just wasn't enough to hang onto 17 mph. But hey, 1 of 2 goals isn't a complete disaster.
Sunday 05/03: 101 miles, 5:58:12 (16.9 mph), Seal Beach the long way via Encanto Park with a detour to the Rosemead Crossing to be safely over 100 miles. Felt a lot better at the end than I imagined that I would. I fought hard to keep my 17.0 mph average on the last 5 miles, but it just wasn't meant to be with the slight uphill and headwind. Felt kind of consterned, but I'll take it in stride. Overall, I was encouraged by how well I held up.
Monday 05/04: 31.4 miles, 1:54:05 (16.5 mph), 8 x RB laps. A nice morning shake out from yesterday. I was actually pretty certain that I would not wake up/be too tired to ride today, but miraculously, my eyes blinked open at 6:30, so I decided to get up and squeeze in a short ride. Felt pretty freakin' fantastic for having gone 100 miles the day before. A little bit tired, but not too much worse for the wear. However, mental note: I am seriously going to mace the next person who pulls this 'blow past and then slow down in front of me, repeatedly' crap! Soooo annoying... Grrrrr.....
Tuesday 05/05: 45.74 miles, 2:41:33 (16.9 mph), Peter's short long loop. I went out with my coworkers yesterday and ate SO much delicious thai food that I developed a horrible stomach ache that was still with me in the morning. As a result, I was conveniently already awake early in the morning, but I had to go real easy on my ride. I just tried to keep the gears small and the cadence high, so I was pretty happy to still end up with a modest improvement in my ride time. I felt a little bit less barfy as time went on, but honestly, still feeling pretty bad now... I don't know if solid foods are in my future today.
Wednesday 05/06: Off, unplanned sleep-in-age. I guess the Wednesday easy ride is fairly uninspiring, as this is the second one I've missed...
Thursday 05/07: 43.1 miles, 3:04:11 (14.1 mph), Angeles Crest to Red Box. Booyah! Redbox is the new Clear Creek. This was an awesome ride, I was super pleased. My first day of climbing couldn't have been better. I guess I'm still experiencing the Miracle of Training on the bike. Legs felt a little rusty, but breathing was totally under control, and I didn't even need granny gear. Came through Clear Creek at about 1:38, feeling pretty good still, so stretched out my IT band a little bit and rode up to Red Box (2:08). Even felt pretty comfortable on the descent, which is extremely rare for me. Red box always used to feel so far away, but I was really excited about how easy it was, and at ~ 3 hours is a totally feasible weekday ride.
Friday 05/08: Off, shots. Ate half of a mint chocolate chip/brownie icecream sandwich.... mmmmmm.... morbidly obese.....
Saturday 05/09: 80.69 miles, 5:40:28 (14.2 mph), GMR/GRR to Baldy Village, back on Baseline to Encanto Park with Peter. Wow, okay... GMR is not as easy as the Angeles Crest. I stubbornly insisted on making in in the 39/25 gear combo, but I wasn't flying the way I was on Thursday. Still felt pretty good until we missed the foodstop at the GMR/GRR/East Fork intersection... after which I felt positively horrendous. I did not remember that GRR was so long. I had 2 bottles of water and a giant gu at Baldy Village, and felt kind of okay going home on Baseline, but that last stretch back home on California was not easy. The last 5 miles of GRR was the first point this year that I've gotten to that "completely vanquished" point on the bike. I'd forgotten what that feels like, and honestly wasn't super amused to be reminded... I wonder if that could have been avoided with a gu at the top of GMR, but I guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out. Glad to be done! Peter and I went to watch an awesome 1500 race by KB and some delicious food with Will and Ruby afterwards.
Training this week: 302 miles, 19:18:29
It turned out to be an interesting ride. Last time, I remember basically being exhausted to tears, but I had KB for company so the distance and time went by pretty quickly. This time, it was harder mentally than physically. My wish for the wind to calm down from yesterday... did NOT come true.
This ride made me think about how fickle one's perception of the passage of time can be. The wind was really brutal (worse than yesterday) on my way down to Seal Beach, and for some reason, going slowly feels mentally taxing, in some strange reversal of the laws of relativity... it felt as though the passage of time itself had slowed to a crawl. At one point, I realized that my face had gotten fixed into a grimace for the past hour or so, but then it also occurred to me that I really wasn't exerting myself more than normal, I was just going slower.
I felt really frustrated and demoralized arriving at my halfway point a good 10 minutes behind the split that I needed to achieve my performance goals (sub-6 hours, > 17 mph). Things were not looking good for me and this ride at this point...
In hindsight it was only really bad for about an hour, but that hour felt like the longest hour of the entire ride. In contrast, my mood and even my perception of my level of tiredness improved drastically once I turned around and was now going at a good clip with the wind behind me. I was pretty blissed out for a while before the wind shifted again and I had to cope with the headwind again on the last segment.
Thankfully by this point, I had a new motivator--I realized that my goals, once seemingly lost, were within reach, if I rode a strong last 15 miles. And once again, when one is racing the clock, the passage of time speeds up to warp speed. I actually did ride a strong last segment, and was really happy with how much fight was still in my legs at that stage, but it just wasn't enough to hang onto 17 mph. But hey, 1 of 2 goals isn't a complete disaster.
Sunday 05/03: 101 miles, 5:58:12 (16.9 mph), Seal Beach the long way via Encanto Park with a detour to the Rosemead Crossing to be safely over 100 miles. Felt a lot better at the end than I imagined that I would. I fought hard to keep my 17.0 mph average on the last 5 miles, but it just wasn't meant to be with the slight uphill and headwind. Felt kind of consterned, but I'll take it in stride. Overall, I was encouraged by how well I held up.
Monday 05/04: 31.4 miles, 1:54:05 (16.5 mph), 8 x RB laps. A nice morning shake out from yesterday. I was actually pretty certain that I would not wake up/be too tired to ride today, but miraculously, my eyes blinked open at 6:30, so I decided to get up and squeeze in a short ride. Felt pretty freakin' fantastic for having gone 100 miles the day before. A little bit tired, but not too much worse for the wear. However, mental note: I am seriously going to mace the next person who pulls this 'blow past and then slow down in front of me, repeatedly' crap! Soooo annoying... Grrrrr.....
Tuesday 05/05: 45.74 miles, 2:41:33 (16.9 mph), Peter's short long loop. I went out with my coworkers yesterday and ate SO much delicious thai food that I developed a horrible stomach ache that was still with me in the morning. As a result, I was conveniently already awake early in the morning, but I had to go real easy on my ride. I just tried to keep the gears small and the cadence high, so I was pretty happy to still end up with a modest improvement in my ride time. I felt a little bit less barfy as time went on, but honestly, still feeling pretty bad now... I don't know if solid foods are in my future today.
Wednesday 05/06: Off, unplanned sleep-in-age. I guess the Wednesday easy ride is fairly uninspiring, as this is the second one I've missed...
Thursday 05/07: 43.1 miles, 3:04:11 (14.1 mph), Angeles Crest to Red Box. Booyah! Redbox is the new Clear Creek. This was an awesome ride, I was super pleased. My first day of climbing couldn't have been better. I guess I'm still experiencing the Miracle of Training on the bike. Legs felt a little rusty, but breathing was totally under control, and I didn't even need granny gear. Came through Clear Creek at about 1:38, feeling pretty good still, so stretched out my IT band a little bit and rode up to Red Box (2:08). Even felt pretty comfortable on the descent, which is extremely rare for me. Red box always used to feel so far away, but I was really excited about how easy it was, and at ~ 3 hours is a totally feasible weekday ride.
Friday 05/08: Off, shots. Ate half of a mint chocolate chip/brownie icecream sandwich.... mmmmmm.... morbidly obese.....
Saturday 05/09: 80.69 miles, 5:40:28 (14.2 mph), GMR/GRR to Baldy Village, back on Baseline to Encanto Park with Peter. Wow, okay... GMR is not as easy as the Angeles Crest. I stubbornly insisted on making in in the 39/25 gear combo, but I wasn't flying the way I was on Thursday. Still felt pretty good until we missed the foodstop at the GMR/GRR/East Fork intersection... after which I felt positively horrendous. I did not remember that GRR was so long. I had 2 bottles of water and a giant gu at Baldy Village, and felt kind of okay going home on Baseline, but that last stretch back home on California was not easy. The last 5 miles of GRR was the first point this year that I've gotten to that "completely vanquished" point on the bike. I'd forgotten what that feels like, and honestly wasn't super amused to be reminded... I wonder if that could have been avoided with a gu at the top of GMR, but I guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out. Glad to be done! Peter and I went to watch an awesome 1500 race by KB and some delicious food with Will and Ruby afterwards.
Training this week: 302 miles, 19:18:29
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