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
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