So I go out to my moderate distance bike yesterday. This week called for a 2 1/2 hour ride. (I have the long ride on the weekends, and an hour fast ride on Tuesdays.) Holy headwinds!
I'm not staying at my own house right now (house/dog sitting money = easy money for the Bank of all things Triathlon!!!!) so I thought I'd try something different on the side of town I'm currently living. I opted for some roads that I knew were part of a big century ride offered every June. Of course I did it backwards and along a major, major freeway here in Colorado. I don't know if it was because of the freeway that goes uphill, or if it was just the weather... I don't know. It was the type of wind that made you adjust your footing when standing still so you don't fall over. It was unbelievable. I was riding on the frontage road because I know my sanity can be sometimes questionable, but I do know better than to ride along a freeway, especially a major metropolitan freeway (I-25.) Still, everytime a semi went by... Whoosh!!!
I thought the frontage road would continue down to the next major town. It did not. I had to come backwards and hop on a side road. I think it took me 5 minutes to travel what just took me 15-20 minutes to ride out. The tailwind was amazing... but oh so not fair to only have 5 minutes of rest when I worked so hard to get out there!
I turn down a side country road. It's great. There's no shoulder, but there's also very little traffic. Unfortunately I have a small crosswind, but there are some trees so it doesn't get too bad until later on. Off in the distance... I see... No! Please tell me that hill is a side road... No! No! Yep. That car that just passed me is going up that hill... That's where I'm headed... I go up the hill. Not sooo bad. Oh, hey, look a good downhill... Oh no... lots of downhill... Holy smokes, that downhill never ends!!!! OMG! THIS IS THE MONSTER HILL AT THE END OF THE ELEPHANT ROCK COURSE. I'll have to come back up this! Noooo!!!!!
So down, and down, and down I go. Should be fun, but eventually I get out of the trees and the crosswind picks up big time. I naturally get scared around 30 mph (I'm a big chicken.) But the crosswinds are scaring the crud out of me! I'm braking to around 25 mph and praying that fews cars go by because I have to steer into the wind (and road) to stay on my bike.
I finally get to the bottom of the hill. Whew. I stop completely. Get some Gatorade and let my heart settle down. Rats. I'm only at an hour. I know it's going to take me lots of time to get up that monster hill, but then I'll have a tailwind on the frontage road. Okay. Let's ride up 15 minutes and then turn around and see what we got. Okay, now, do I go uphill with a tailwind, and then turn around downhill with the headwind??? That's the route I go. Turns out I went more uphill with headwind and more downhill with tail wind. I ride out 16 minutes, it takes me 4 minutes to get back. I kid you not!
I peddle up the hill. It wasn't as bad as I remembered from last year. When I did it last year I had to wait for a friend every couple of miles, and when I'd stop, I always remembered being happy to have the breaks.
I made it back out to the frontage road with 40 minutes left to ride. Ugh... All this wind... I peddled back to another side road. Mind you I'm now riding uphill again, into a headwind, and it's uphill to the high point between Denver and Colorado Springs. All major weather that doesn't start in the mountains, starts over this high point. And the clouds are getting black... Oh do I want to turn around.
I plugged through it, and I turned around with 20 minutes left to go. I flew that next 20 minutes with the tailwind--and I was now facing Denver, which had blue sunny skies...
I made it back to my car in 2 hours 30 minutes and 30 seconds. I couldn't have planned that better if I tried. And while I didn't have rain--I now have the training ride from heck that I can look back on and know I did endure!!!!!
I'm not staying at my own house right now (house/dog sitting money = easy money for the Bank of all things Triathlon!!!!) so I thought I'd try something different on the side of town I'm currently living. I opted for some roads that I knew were part of a big century ride offered every June. Of course I did it backwards and along a major, major freeway here in Colorado. I don't know if it was because of the freeway that goes uphill, or if it was just the weather... I don't know. It was the type of wind that made you adjust your footing when standing still so you don't fall over. It was unbelievable. I was riding on the frontage road because I know my sanity can be sometimes questionable, but I do know better than to ride along a freeway, especially a major metropolitan freeway (I-25.) Still, everytime a semi went by... Whoosh!!!
I thought the frontage road would continue down to the next major town. It did not. I had to come backwards and hop on a side road. I think it took me 5 minutes to travel what just took me 15-20 minutes to ride out. The tailwind was amazing... but oh so not fair to only have 5 minutes of rest when I worked so hard to get out there!
I turn down a side country road. It's great. There's no shoulder, but there's also very little traffic. Unfortunately I have a small crosswind, but there are some trees so it doesn't get too bad until later on. Off in the distance... I see... No! Please tell me that hill is a side road... No! No! Yep. That car that just passed me is going up that hill... That's where I'm headed... I go up the hill. Not sooo bad. Oh, hey, look a good downhill... Oh no... lots of downhill... Holy smokes, that downhill never ends!!!! OMG! THIS IS THE MONSTER HILL AT THE END OF THE ELEPHANT ROCK COURSE. I'll have to come back up this! Noooo!!!!!
So down, and down, and down I go. Should be fun, but eventually I get out of the trees and the crosswind picks up big time. I naturally get scared around 30 mph (I'm a big chicken.) But the crosswinds are scaring the crud out of me! I'm braking to around 25 mph and praying that fews cars go by because I have to steer into the wind (and road) to stay on my bike.
I finally get to the bottom of the hill. Whew. I stop completely. Get some Gatorade and let my heart settle down. Rats. I'm only at an hour. I know it's going to take me lots of time to get up that monster hill, but then I'll have a tailwind on the frontage road. Okay. Let's ride up 15 minutes and then turn around and see what we got. Okay, now, do I go uphill with a tailwind, and then turn around downhill with the headwind??? That's the route I go. Turns out I went more uphill with headwind and more downhill with tail wind. I ride out 16 minutes, it takes me 4 minutes to get back. I kid you not!
I peddle up the hill. It wasn't as bad as I remembered from last year. When I did it last year I had to wait for a friend every couple of miles, and when I'd stop, I always remembered being happy to have the breaks.
I made it back out to the frontage road with 40 minutes left to ride. Ugh... All this wind... I peddled back to another side road. Mind you I'm now riding uphill again, into a headwind, and it's uphill to the high point between Denver and Colorado Springs. All major weather that doesn't start in the mountains, starts over this high point. And the clouds are getting black... Oh do I want to turn around.
I plugged through it, and I turned around with 20 minutes left to go. I flew that next 20 minutes with the tailwind--and I was now facing Denver, which had blue sunny skies...
I made it back to my car in 2 hours 30 minutes and 30 seconds. I couldn't have planned that better if I tried. And while I didn't have rain--I now have the training ride from heck that I can look back on and know I did endure!!!!!
4 comments:
I laughed out loud. I know that hill from Elephant rock. And ya, it's scary. Glad you made it. I see you are showing strength, on writing and riding. KEEP THE POWER!!! and tell Greg to stop slacking.
matt
Yea, tell Greg that he needs to get it in gear!
I did elephant rock too. That hill was the worst thing EVER! I mean it...the worst thing in the ENTIRE world.
As far as nutrition, I take pbj sandwhiches cut into 4 fours. I know that sounds strange, but I can't eat one entire pbj on the road. It gags me. yeah, so I'm strange. But I can throw down a square or two. I'm also a fan of powerbars (yeah, the original) and Cliff bar Banana Bread.
Maybe you could try those to see if you like them. I have a hard time with drinks. I drink too much and pee all day or I bonk. Go figure.
My picture is from elephant rock.
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