Two Wheel Blogs

As recently as two years ago, I would have thought nothing of a Saturday morning ride of 6+ hours and 100+ miles. Of course, that was before I learned what it meant to ride "tempo." Naturally, "tempo" is a relative term based on the skills of the rider, but I'm using it to describe something north of the 18mph pace. Therefore, my former rides, while long days in the saddle, were a little easier on the legs and lungs as I would typically average something around 14-15mph for the day. Nowadays, I'm quite comfortable riding along at a pace of 19-22mph depending on the wind and the terrain.

Fast forward to yesterday and my decision to ride to Portage des Sioux and back. A ride that would include about 45 miles of solo effort and 35-40 miles of group riding. Overall, I figured the day would be something in the neighborhood of 5 hours of saddle time. As it turns out, I ended up being gone for 5h45m, but spent some of that time as a down time. All in all, my cycling computer recorded 4h45m for a total of 85 miles. The discrepency in clock time vs. computer time was attributed to our need to care for a rider that hit the deck and get her back to a car and then regroup.

My effort yesterday ran the gamut from hard tempo at 22mph for the first leg of the day, to recovery spinning at 18-19mph during middle leg of the day, to threshold "attack/bridge" efforts at 24-28mph, and finally wind survival and I-think-I'm-gonna-die efforts at 15-18mph during the tail end of the day. The final climb of the day was Hog Hollow and it ripped me wide open. As I rolled in, I was hammered. 85 miles and not a drop left in the tank.

I drank a protein shake, took a good shower, and then slept for 2 1/2 hours. Afterwards, I lounged on the couch, watched TV, ate pizza, and then got in bed for the night at 730pm. I slept til 2am, ate a bowl of cereal, and then slept til 6am. That reminds me of my last 300k when I ordered a pizza on the way home, got home ate 1 slice and went to bed only to get up in the middle of the night and eat the remaining pizza.

Good thing cross races only last about an hour. I couldn't handle anything more.