Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Feet Back on the Ground

Tonight's bike work out was a small dose of cycling reality after the heady joys of passing the purple hordes at Wildflower. The only people I passed were my teammates in the Team Time Trial (TTT), and I was passing them because they were dropping to the back of the line. Many people did, however, pass me. Not just my TTT mates as I dropped back, rather everyone else in the group.

Just for "fun" tonight's workout consisted of two parts - an 8km TTT followed by an 8km ITT (Indvidual Time Trial). Essentially going fast while riding 3" off someone's back wheel and trying not to kill yourself and others followed by going all out and trying not to throw up or have your legs explode. Yup, an all 'round giggle fest.

The first time through, when we hit the turn around and had to return in ITT mode, I yelled "Every man for himself" (silly as our group consisted of four women), stood on the pedals and rode away like a maniac, immediately dropping my unsuspecting former teammates. It was glorious, I was bullet-like in my speed, I was unstoppable, I dropped everyone like lead. Until my legs turned to lead approximately 45 seconds later and Teresa, Lindsay and Mirabelle all caught and passed me. I managed to reel in Lindsay and play leapfrog with Mirabelle but completely lost Teresa as she and Peppy disappeared out of view ahead. The final twist of the knife was Mirabelle saying at the end that she didn't want to pass me as she couldn't remember the way.

The second time through was a bit better - we were more organized for the TTT and I managed to hold off everyone but Mirabelle for the ITT, but those last 8km sure hurt.

My legs were definitely sore from the weekend and I was pretty wiped out at the end of the workout but the ride home helped to loosen things up a bit. I'm lucky to train with a skilled and fast group of athletes, I may get passed by almost everyone but it's fun having lots of people to chase.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Well you did better then me. I left after the first one. Head space hasn't been good lately and it wasn't getting any better last night. And I have to admit that I'm jealous of you... I wish I could climb hills like you do. You're so happy climbing them.

Alison said...

Happy? I don't think that word applied to any part of last night's workout, except the 45 seconds of misguided lunacy in the ITT!

As to joys in ascending, I spent most of my life terrified of descending at speed (I think it goes back to a family bike trip where I lost control on a gravel downhill - I'm still scared of gravel) so I had to focus on getting up hills quick. I'd trade some of that for some "Biking into headwinds doesn't suck out my soul" mojo.

Hope your headspace improves. You push yourself hard and have high expectations, which is usually good, but sometimes you need to back off and go easy. To quote one of my yoga instructors - be gentle with yourself.