Well, another week of base training is almost in the books. This will be another one of those weeks were I mix it up a little bit with a running race. The title of this post is This could be interesting because I had another decent week of training that included a pretty tough 4.5 hour ride today. I was supposed to swim this afternoon, but decided a nap was a better idea due to how tired I was after the week of work, travel, and training. We did a fair amount of climbing today, over 4k, but it wasn't just the climbing. The wind was pretty sustained at 20mph throughout the ride. Wind can really increase your energy output quickly as you have to work so much harder to maintain proper pedal stroke, form, position, speed, etc. All without getting blown around right!!
So anyways, it was a good day in the saddle. I felt really strong and am happy with how my base training has prepared me. Our final climb of the day occurred around 3 hours in. As I lead our group around a switchback, I saw a guy coming up from a side road that was joining the road we were on. He looked pretty fit so I pushed up the pace enough to pull away from my group and inform the new guy that he wasn't going to take the hill. Well, he responded. Half way up the hill and I'm working fairly hard...I haven't seen him yet, but I can sense him. I'm in my 53 as I continue to work on power on my climbs, and to be honest, have grown to like climbing in my 53 unless the grade is just too intense. Anyways, all of a sudden I felt the guy on my wheel. I could hear him breathing really hard. We had another 3/4 mile or so to the top.
10 seconds later we rounded a turn and the grade increased slightly. I thought "now or never" and dropped to a bigger gear and started to pumping. The labored breathing became more and more faint and I could tell I was putting distance on him. I crested the hill and looped around to go back to my group and ride the last part again with them. I saw the stranger as I went back, I had gaped him by a good 20 meters or so. We waved at each other and there was a competitor type of smile from him...as in, you got me today :) I actually ran into him later and we chatted for a while. Seemed like a good dude. All in all though, that final push up that climb...well, I'll feel it tomorrow in my running race! We'll see how it goes. My goal is to even split it, if not negative split. My goal, although it might have changed after going too hard today :), is to confidently run what I want to do for my half marathon race in Eugene in a few weeks. That would be 6:45 pace. Let's get it on!!
-T
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