War games
Unit and I hit out on the road yesterday for about an hour's ride. As he rolled out I distinctly remember hearing him say something about "recovery". Cool, I thought to myself. After two tough days of riding this weekend an easy Monday spin should bring a little life back into these legs.
A mile down the road - actually up, because he lives at the bottom of a hill - I'm wheezing and gasping for breath, legs on fire. This is recovery?
I think it must have been because it was cool and windy day. There wasn't really any way to ride at a true recovery level out there. Blame it on the weather. Our 90 minute recovery spin had turned into an hour-long test to break each others legs.
We didn't put a lot of thought into strategy. We just used basic physics to our advantage where applicable.
Unit's bigger and slightly heavier than I am. In a chin-on-stem tuck he's a bullet train. He's a tough customer on rolling terrain. His gravity-gained speed and short term power are a tough combo. I had to pedal hard both descending and climbing just to keep up.
I, on the other hand, had an advantage on the longer climbs. That's not to say I'm especially good at climbing by any means. The advantage comes from being relative smaller and lighter.
So our recovery ride turned into a friendly and spirited series of skirmishes lasting a little over an hour. Thinking back on it, this wasn't a bad way for me to follow up the previous day's training and racing. I didn't have much in my legs for a longer ride; but I did have enough for a short series of shorter efforts.
Today I do indeed plan to take a recovery day. The elastic is stretched about as far as it needs to be right now. it's time to relax a little of that tension.
Search
 |
It is your fault!
That "recovery" ride becoming a thrash-fest was all you. I was hanging on for dear life most of the ride!
It was a great ride, and a great time. We need to do that again soon. May be next time we can take it easy and catch up on a little more conversation (my heart pounding made it difficult for you to hear me a couple times).
To be honest, I did throw out at least one spirited attack (you may recall I announced it as such). I was hoping that effort would result in your legs lodging a protest and you would say something like, "wow, I am feeling the past few days...we ought to take it easy..." No such decree ever was uttered...
I said that
Oh I do believe I said that alright. We hadn't even gotten to the top of the first hill, if I recall correctly. You were just too far ahead to hear my plea.
Post new comment