Remembering

What is it that I was remembering you might ask. Riding in zone 4 for a long time. It was blow out the legs day. 20 minutes warm up then let it all out. The words from my slave driver. Go Fast!!! Like O-Cup fast. In other words go till you blow?? Almost.

The weather was perfect to ride outside. Screw sitting on the hamster wheel from hell. I need to see things moving past me if I'm going to hurt like that. Since I am, or at least play one on tv, a mountain biker and since there is yet to be a completely flat race course I picked the hilliest course I could think of. The road bike was the weapon of choice today.

For those that know the area. Vasey line coming out of Coldwater starts just like every O-cup. Going up. Steep up. I believe it is 13 percent on the first grade. It was zone 2 to just below redline almost instantly. My legs were sore first thing this morning and I was a little concerned as I started that I would crash and burn. Not the case today.

From Vasey line I turned left on the 8th heading towards Moonstone which continues up. No rest just climbing. I tasted my breakfast a couple times but managed to keep it where it should be. I was going to need it. About 20 minutes in to the hammerfest I flipped my HR monitor so I couldn't see it. Watching the stupid thing keep flashing numbers between 180 and 190 knowing I still had a while at this pace was mentally cruel.

Can't see it can't feel it? Ignorance is bliss? I don't but I kept telling myself this. The highlight of the ride was the 17 percent climb on the 3rd line. Yes it hurt, a lot but when I looked down to see where I was in gear ratio I sorta smiled. I was a couple gears smaller than I was at this point last year.

I did the dumb thing and not put my GPS on the bike because I would love to know the vertical I climbed today. Of course no pictures, hell breathing was hard enough. It was and hour and 5 minutes of full out. 34.5 kms. Roughly 32 km/h on an extremely hill course. Heart rate averaged 171 including warm up and cool down. This makes me happy. All those crap hours on the trainer showed up today on the road.

I did get to see Heather today and we talked about the results and with some alterations to my race schedule. There is a new race series in Ontario that really has me interested. O-cup may take a back seat to this. Check out Substance Projects. It's an Enduro series which is sweet and needed.

I have an easy paced long ride for tomorrow, last day of recovery. It's also daylight savings time. This means more light at the end of the day which means less time on the trainer. Woo Hoo.

That's it for now.