John Boi and I's Ride
So while Units group went out and rode the nasty, slop mud and gravel, John Langworthy and I decided to ride rode. And while you all might have had a nice workout, something tells me it wasn't quit the pain I felt yesterday.
John was pretty calm about riding, he had his HR monitor on and checked it frequently. He wanted to stay in Zone 2, which I have no idea how hard that is on the charts of zones. But I do know this. We finished the 60 mile ride right around 3 and a half hours. Now this wasn't a ride you felt worked on the whole time. It was mostly flat with rolling hills. The cadence was good I felt through most of it. All until the last 5 to 10 miles. The ten mile out wasn't bad but I began to feel the tops of my legs sore up.
The last hill was torture. The legs pretty much gave out on this quarter mile hill about at the bottom. I was behind John but he quickly scooted away while I was left to struggle with every pedal stroke. Halfway up my legs began to cramp. Every downstroke left me that much closer to a non-stop cramp that would have made me dismount. But no, I will not fall victim to the poor leg conditioning epidemic, and I managed to climb it out.
Overall it was a bad ass ride. Not too warm, not too cold. The wind was a bit much at times but thats normal. Next weekend begins racing season with the first race of the Heartland Series. The time is now baby!
Diet and Hydration.
I would bet that the soreness you felt during up shoots in power production were more a result of hydration than conditioning.
Try drinking more and taking in more electrolytes on these rides. A little food would not hurt either.
Zone 2 is a easy pace during which you should be able to maintain steady conversation (no heavy breathing). If you guys stayed in Z2 and bits of Z3, there is no way your legs should have been hurting from stress. This is why I believe it may be due to hydration (cramping).
That is a good thing! It is easy to fix.
Ya
You most likely are correct. I did have one bottle with electrolytes in it and my camelpack. I didnt quite finish the bottle and I probably have a little less than half of the camleback full. One thing John did that I didnt is eat food. I had some Taco Bell before but I only relied on Hammer Gel during. And even at that I only had 3 shots. I only stopped twice for about 1 min. each to take shots but other than that it was straight riding.