Man, what a great day. 72°, 99% of the trails are dry and clear trails. Today I decided to go out and kill myself with a 27 miles pre ride race pace-ish SS jaunt through Patapsco. Now mind you, I didnt set out to do 3 laps today; it was one of those things that you decide on the spur of the moment, er uh spontaneous.
First lap was rather dismal, the waterbar climbs killed me for the 1st half of the loop. I had limited power and almost named the ride-the vomit comet; yeah, real close to it. The second lap was much, much better. I turned in my fastest loop time at 38:21, last year my fastest was 40:38-so looking ok. Came to the end of the 2nd lap and was going to cut it short half way through the 3rd lap, but for some odd reason, I went on. 3 times up Ridge is not something I look forward to at all. In fact, I felt pretty blah on all 3 attempts. I finish the ride feeling pretty depleated, although satisfied. I think being on the road bike so much this year has put a damper on my mtb climbing efforts, but still time to overcome that.
Last year, my time was 2:10 for the race, today's time-although not a race (which is usually a slower time anyway) was 2:01:34-almost 9 minutes faster than last year. I would like to think that I can duplicate that effort saturday; we'll see. Ridge will certainly be the deciding factor for sure.
Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed & stable a horse, had by this bright invention, enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of a material life.
ReplyDeleteFrances Willard,How I learned to Ride the Bicycle