Saturday, Jordo & I moseyed up High Grade & Shadow Mountain for a grrreat ride. We met at the typical 8am at Bang and rolled out South. The weather forecast was ominous, so, we knew we had to get a move on. The floods from the night before had kinda messed up the South Platte Path a little and we had to navigate a few sandy, muddy spots. For the past few weeks, I've noticed that if I take Friday off of training, I feel like crap on Saturday.
A lot of times, there is no snap in the legs, or, any sorta "want" if you will, and I'm just not into it. I can deal with 3-4 or so of so-so training like this, but, damn...I love the weekends! So, this week I played it a bit different and took Thursday off, doing a semi-opener type workout on Friday. Basically it was an hour lunch with 3-4 30-45 second sprints on the "hilly sections" of Cherry Creek Res. As Jordo & I approached Deer Creek, I could feel the snap in the legs as we started to climb, and was excited for a good day. As we climbed Deer Creek, I still felt like I could turn over a good cadence and put some good effort into the work. Of course, Mr Climbsalot left me behind, but he was doing his big ring Carter stuff up to the HG turn-off. Regardless, he waited for very little once he stopped, and I was psyched for that since most of the time when he & Hanna go uphill, they're able to sit around and knit a sweater or play mahjong for a few hours. Today it was different! We started up high grade, and I felt good up until that set of switchbacks that takes you to the grey-ish rock "wall" section that kicks up to like 9-10%. I always struggle with this section and my cadence dropped like a lead weight. However, I made it a point to not stop pedaling, no matter how slow, and, to try to just keep going. Once I passed through this section, it eased up nicely, and I kept it going to the top. Jordan was long rested by the time I hit the Grange to refill, but, was more than willing to wait, as he'd never been up Shadow Mountain. We descended, and, hit the Shadow Mtn climb which starts of relatively tame. It's like 1-3 % then goes up to ~4 or so. After a few miles though, it goes DIRECTLY up, topping out at about 13%. I completely forgot about this section, and once I saw it in the distance, quickly remembered, and, calmly uttered "shiiiiiiit" to myself. The descent was awesome, and, filled with various attacks. I launched one that lasted a good few miles and was feeling tip-top. My jump off of Jordan's wheel gave me the snap, and, my bike, being the stiff rocket that it is, responded even nicer and kicked my ass off the front. I was able to keep the gap for a bit, eventually hitting a stop sign and putting the foot down. It felt great to do that!
Finally, we descended all the way back down the canyon, and I made it home. Later that night, Amy & I hit Red Tango for the tastiest of vittles. If you haven't been, you MUST go. It deserves the 5 stars over 19 reviews it gets, and, just has the most amazing food!!! Hard to describe, so, you have to just trust me on it...
Sunday, we got up at the crack 'o dawn to roll up to Erie to catch up with Mike, Kelly, and a few of the gang. We headed out to Carter Lake, then, north to Masonville. Some of the roads we'd been on were just plain beautiful! The roads were virtually empty the whole ride, except for HWY 34. Other than that, no problem motorists or anything. I was definitely tired from Saturday, and could really feel it in my legs!! However, the amazing human body rose to the challenge and the legs opened up a bit after an hour or so. Don't get me wrong, I was still beat!
This week, lots of commuting in, and, then, a solo-babysitting gig with my lil nephew on Saturday! Wohooo!
No comments:
Post a Comment