Hill repeats on an empty tank

caught the morning ride, plan was to do 15 repeats of Hillside...

I got lapped, legs were not there the moment we hit the first one. Tank was pretty empty. Muscle glycogen levels were low, liver glycogen was pretty much empty. First hill and the "oh shit this is going to be tough" flashed through my head. I couldn't hang with Mike, but then a month or so ago he hooked up with a wicked pro coach. I seriously though about bagging it up that first rise after the creek. "screw this, it won't be effective if you ain't got the fuel for it".

But then the Bobke quote popped in my head:

When you feel good - go easy, when you feel bad - try to go hard. It's in degrees. When you feel good, back off a bit, when you feel bad go a little bit harder. It's tough to do - to attack when your dying, that's what bike racing is all about.

And with that I managed to push through and over the first rise, then the next and over the top.

Slow, but a pace that I could probably have kept going much longer than the 13 or 14 I did. Although I will admit that the last one really seemed like I was at the limit. I'm not sure I could have done another one if we turned around and hit it one more time. The last few hills weren't actually all that bad. My recovery was doing well but the legs strength was lacking. The one after the seekonk line was pretty okay - a nice steady big ring rise, no trouble. But I am beat. A good old fashioned beat down.

Next time I gotta remember to eat something before ride or make sure I eat a good bit of food just before sleeping. But it is good to feel completely wiped out. Re-learning the lesson of the low fuel warning, but also being surprised with how well my legs responded considering... if I'd just had a bit of breakfast I might have been able to tax my lungs just as much...

I guess I should have waited until tomorrow to re-open that book thing, might have been funnier or maybe more than soups would have thought G-ride was punking me again.

Oh the 27 stayed clean. I thought about The Rider, and the comments about their biggest cog staying clean... Not that it would have made much difference, climbing standing up would have just been slower if i'd relented and moved up to the 27.

Lots going on out there besides cycling - but man - I'm not sure what words to find to talk about them. The whole GM Chrysler thing is pretty intense. But then home sales in this state are up 8%, that's not a bad sign. May not be a great sign but it is a glimmer of hope that things might not be as bad as the media wants it to be.

I really liked this bit from Sunday morning this week:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Nice perspective... that said - how do you find out who's reporting the news and who's just writing to write...

heddwch
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