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Easter Weekend Riding |
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Written by Jason Mahokey
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Sunday, 16 April 2006 |
I had planned a couple days of big mile road riding Friday & Saturday,. BBBBBBBut since my bulb can be a bit dim and I forgot my jersey and shorts when I traveled out to my dad's house to ride Friday (and I'm not one to do a 60 mile road ride in a t-shirt and jeans) I had to settle for some nice time on the road and an abundance of steep Western Pennsylvania hills on Saturday only.
I was prepared for a long ride so I had the CamelBack filled with HEED (yes, I put it in my pack), a bottle of Perpetuem and two flasks filled with Hammer Gel goodness.
After road riding without a pack for a while now I felt like a freaking skinny tired tank. The ride starts with a 1.5-2 mile climb with some sick grades in spots. I felt like I had a midget on my back weighing me down, laughing in my ear and mocking me for wearing the pack. That climb kinda sucked.
Somehow I made it to the top, found my legs, ditched the laughing midget and continued on. Hit some new roads that were pretty cool, but may have been better on a mountain bike rather than the roadie. STEEP, narrow climbs with a healthy dose of loose gravel, pot holes and cow dung. Sweet! Cornering was slow going and begged for fatter tires.
Hit one narrow farm road called "Slaughter Hollow Road". Real nice, I rode that one with one eye looking for sheep loving red necks, wielding axes and looking for some fresh, shaved legged meat.
At mile 44 I was back at the car. That won't work! Who rides 44 miles?? So I pass the Element and head up hill #1 AGAIN. This time feeling much better. How messed up is it that after 44 miles and about 3 hours of riding I felt better this time than the first?? Rode up the hill, down another then did a U-turn and climbed back up and cruised at a modest 40 mph down to my "black box". Ended with 52.5 miles, 3:20.
All in all- a good ride. Not great, but good. So much climbing that cruising along at moderate speeds just doesn't really happen. I can only hope that all that climbing in 39/25 will make climbing in 32/34 feel like nothing. One good thing is what goes up usually comes down which is fun, although I have a very Jan Ulrich style of descending- Sink like a stone and just as graceful! It was also nice that after nearly 3.5 hours in the saddle I still felt good at the end.
Used the new Greyhound Juice warming stick on my legs today. Good stuff. This version is for warm weather but the warming effect is still pretty intense. Man, the cold weather version must just melt your skin off! I also used the new Greyhound Juice Anti Friction chamois cream too. My butt and it's two chamois sharing friends are happy I did. With climbs like today's, there's a lot of weight shifting in the saddle and I had no soreness from rubbage at all in the end. (no pun intended)
Observations: What's up with all the dead possums? Every ride I go on I see like 3 or 4. What, do they just hang in the middle of the road begging to get hit or what? Head in the game possums! Head in the game!
Time to get my plan together for the race week taper. I find these weeks hard. Taper weeks and recovery weeks are the worst for me. At least with recovery weeks my body usually feels like dung, but with taper I'm all jacked up to ride/race and forcing myself to focus on the impending race is hard. Getting better though.
Hope you all had/are having a good Easter weekend. Sunday's goal- avoid ham. Ham is more evil than peanut butter. My fingers swell up like sausages, and it makes me super thirsty. Not a fan, so it's easy. Unlike the smooth, salty, sugary goodness that IS peanut butter. I may have a slight peanut butter addiction. Admitting you have a problem is the first step.
Later.
Jason
"The Soiled Chamois" |
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