Building up to the weekend, I was somewhat optimistic on getting in some good quality riding. But during the week last week, I started getting nervous. I saw the temperature estimates for Saturday and Sunday and saw they would barely make the 50º range. Not bad for a shorter ride, but for anything over two hours, it makes me stop and think if it's worth it. Going out in the cold(er) weather and slugging away in the wind. Sunday looked to be better than Saturday at first. Saturday was calling for low 40's in the early morning, so I decided to call it in and put in a few hours on the trainer.
I strung together a triple set of The Sufferfest videos, to keep my effort up and keep me interested. So I lined up my water bottles and nutrition on my side table and took off, headed straight into the wind of my somewhat powerful house fan. I put together a decent ride of about 3.5 hours doing Local Hero, Hell Hath No Fury, and finished with Angels. But instead of maxing out in each video, I changed the scales of when the higher efforts would normally be achieved, and reeled them back down 5-10% in my HR zones so I wouldn't burn out early.
I started off kind of weak, having trouble getting my HR up, but as time wore on, I could feel my body wake up and I was able to push it. I also knew in the back of my mind, I had another big ride planned for Sunday, so I couldn't kill myself. I got up to about 75% of max HR a couple times, but never really felt things fall apart. I felt really good the whole way through, and never had any issues with my still healing knee from my ACL surgery. However, I did skip some of the cool down sections of the videos, and just jumped into the warm up sections and used those as a transition period from one hard session to the next. Otherwise I would have had about 15 minutes or so of really easy pedaling, and it would have pushed my ride over 4 hours most likely. Everything felt good when I got off the bike, and I was ready for a big healthy lunch and some time with my family while getting my feet up. I had a big day planned for Sunday, so I knew I needed to take it easy and get some good solid food in me as well. I did let myself have a Fat Tire beer as a little weekend treat. But that, I knew, would dehydrate me, so I stayed pretty rigorous on getting in plenty of water.
Then came time for Sunday Funday. And if you look at the elevation chart below, I think you can understand my idea of fun. For some, it may be torture. I got up in good time, around 6am to get things ready and fill myself up for the long haul ahead. I was a bit tired at first and was questioning my sanity for doing a big double up weekend, but I knew inside I really wanted to get it done. After slamming down four waffles, a banana, some berries and a cup of coffee, I was ready to get going. I got my hydration setup how I needed: two bottles (one with water and one with EFS), and my CamelBak Octane full of water. I also grabbed 2 Clif Bars, 2 Honey Stingers (amazing), and 4 Gu Roctane in Cherry Lime for nutrition. I threw on all of my gear, checked my tire pressure, and was ready to roll.
Within the first 3-4 miles I did stop twice to adjust my seat height, as I was riding my wife's Orbea Ora, and hadn't readjusted it after traveling with it. But once that was set, I was cruising and looking forward to a long steady ride.
The temperatures were in the mid 40's when I started, and did slowly climb as the day wore on. Starting just after 7am, I knew I might be pulling some of my layers off. But honestly, the only thing that came off was my arm warmers, which I had a compression shirt on under my jersey as well, so I was plenty warm. It was a bit chilly through the whole ride, with a steady wind that built up throughout the morning coming out of the NE. But, if I had to choose the wind coming out of any direction, that was probably the best I could get. For nearly the whole route North, I didn't deal with much of it, except when I got into an open field a few miles North of the town of Lake Geneva. I had to lean in a bit, but once I hit the corner at the top of a small hill, things were back to normal.
However, as I got further North and had to start making my turn East, I was not looking forward to the next hour or so of dealing with the chilly wind. It wasn't strong enough to stop me in my tracks if I wasn't redlining, but there was enough there to keep me honest, and it was very annoying. Dealing with wind for me is so much more mental than it is physical. How hard do you push? Do you ease up and just take it? Or do you man up, get low, and plow through? I did a little of both. When I felt I could push, I'd push. When I knew I'd lose the battle, I'd slow up and just take it for what it is.
The whole route has it's steady up and down, good size hills. More so when I cross the border into Wisconsin. But the champion part of the ride is the whole part North of Lake Geneva. Leaving the town, I dealt with a few mediocre hills, but it all came crumbling down on me after I took a hard right and what was perfectly described to me by my brother as a vertical wall of pavement (Thanks Ben). So I am heading down this steep drop and it somewhat camel backs in the middle, but instead of riding it out to the bottom, I take a hard right and literally see a vertical wall of pavement. The trees hanging over hide the top of the hill, but I actually had no clue how steep it was as I lead into in. There's a small drop just before to help with the first 10 feet or so, but that's it. Once I'm on the wall, I'm out of my saddle and laying down massive amounts of power. To be honest, I was laughing the whole way up with the ridiculousness of the hill. I have never ridden one so steep. Even when I reached the summit, and my HR was pushing into the 190 range, I was still smiling.
From that point on, not a single hill scared me. Even the long steady uphills. Once I beat 'The Wall', I knew I could get up the rest of the route. The rest of my route coming home was pretty nice. Some hills, but nothing compared to the northern section. I had to deal with the wind a little bit more when I would turn SE and E headed home, but for some reason, it really wasn't bothering me at all.
If you take a look at the elevation graph below, you can see just what I went through over the course of Sunday morning. When I was done, I was happy. But I'm honestly looking forward to doing another ride like this soon. But for now, it's a bit of rest and some good recovery nutrition and probably a solid recovery ride as well. ('The Wall' is right around mile 33)
-Dave
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