6/30/08: Great Training Ride

Waking up the day after the Ft. Collins RR, I did not feel fatigued as one would expect to after such a challenging race. Instead, I felt depleted. Like a car with an empty gas tank and no oil. No soreness, but my legs felt like they each weighed a ton. I had been bled dry the day before.

It took me from that Saturday afternoon to the following Thursday afternoon to finally start feeling normal. Training those days went pretty well, but not great. It wasn’t until Friday’s ride that my body felt like it was finally coming back around. I deferred my weekend long ride to Sunday, hoping that the extra day of distance between it and last weekend’s road race will help me get the most out of the session.

I set out at 6 a.m. with Ben Buxton, a neighbor and fellow racer. We found this ride on Michael Barry’s blogsite. Instead of rehashing it here, I’ll instead provide the link: http://www.michaelbarry.ca/pages/rides/boulder.htm. I would be hard-pressed to add the depth and detail about the course, which Michael does a great job of describing. Suffice it to say that it is one of the exciting, epic rides in the front range which allowed me to ride on new stretches of paved and dirt roads, and see some breathtaking scenery. The fact that it was a great workout and that my body responded very well to it were almost secondary.

The climb up Lefthand Canyon to Ward is a perfect simulation for Mt. Evans. The grades are similar and, at a moderate clip, the climb lasted about 75 minutes. I was feeling strong so decided to press the final 10-12 minutes up the steepest parts to Peak-to-Peak Highway. The legs felt snappy and the power output was very solid. The ride over to Ned is simple and straightforward, and after a quick bottle refill, Ben and I were headed off to Wondervu.

My favorite 60-miler is the Wondervu-to-Ned-to-Boulder loop, or the same ride in reverse. The backside of the Wondervu climb is considerably shorter than the front side but much steeper. After descending from Ned to Pinecliff, we hit the first short grunt of a climb. The legs felt very good here, so I decided to really push the climb up to Wondervu. Over 3 hours into the ride, if I came in under 11 minutes, I would consider it good. I hit the top in 10:15. Legs felt great, HR rose to some pretty high values – another positive sign that the body was coping well with the ride, and the time for the climb was great.

The dirt climbs on Gross Dam Rd. and to the top of Flagstaff Mountain passed without a hitch, besides having to stop for both the ski train and a loooooong coal plant train. Once we got going again, the rest of the ride was awesome and the descent down Flagstaff was aggressive. Ben picks great lines so following him down forced me to push my limits on the switchbacks in particular.

We completed the ride in just under 5 hours. The best sign was that I felt fresh enough and strong enough to have ridden another several hours. The rest of the day, I did not even feel like I had ridden. I was up for anything. While still in my mind, last weekend’s disappointment is clearly in the past and the focus can now clearly be on the task ahead.

See you out there,
Nate