Weekly Training Update: 5 miles is not a training ride

Monday: Do you know what it's like chasing Cat 1s,2s into a headwind? F'in hurts. Lungs are bursting, legs are screaming, HR is through the roof. Wait, I'm not even warmed up yet. Not fun. Especially when you know the speeds they are doing are 3-5 MPH faster. You slowly see them gain distance on the downhill rollers. You hope you can claw your way back on the uphill sections, where you normally go hard, but then you realize you have no energy left to push uphill. And, they quickly gain distance. Your last hope are the traffic lights. So you dig and bury yourself.

Was about 15 sec late hooking up with the ride, but putting out 300+W for a couple mins trying to catch them was just about killing me. I prayed for red lights to slow them up. I almost caught them as they crossed Seven Locks but the light turned red as I neared the intersection, and I did something I never do, I ran it (but I looked both ways). Harry slowed up for me but once I was on his wheel, he floored it and I wasn't really recovering sitting on his wheel, I was barely hanging on. I had nothing left to stay with the group as they went up the steep climb on Kentsdale. I normally hammer up this without a problem but after putting in a big effort for the last 10min, I was already in the red. I slowly watched them ride off in the distance as I tried to get my breathing under control. The rest of the ride was a solo recovery effort until I came upon Harry repairing his flat. I did the good team thing and stopped to help him.

Tuesday: Couldn't make it out, so I did about 1.5 hours on the trainer. About 10 1min intervals all out was really hard. I could hardly breath the last 15 secs, and my legs felt like they were going to fall off me. After these intervals, I tried doing some longer intervals but my legs were trashed.

Wednesday: Of course the Hill Ride. After the intervals the night before, I really didn't have a lot of energy to maintain the pace on the climbs, so I rode with Randy coming out of the GF Park. We skipped Brickyard, and did a half-assed attempt at riding up MntGate again, as we waited the guys to come down Mnt Gate. The rest of the ride was just an attempt to sit on wheels.

Thursday: Unlike Monday, I was on time and I met the group along Bradley. Unfortunately, I flatted early in the ride. F'in glass. Repaired the flat and took a route that would connect me back up with the ride someplace along MacArthur. So for about 15mins I tried holding a L4 output until I met up with the gang just before Brickyard. Reversed direction and jumped on their wheels. The rest of the way along MacArthur was a pretty strong pace, and I was just holding on after pushing L4 for 15min. My legs were starting to really burn and my turn in the front really hurt.

This was my second flat in less than a week, so tonight, I put my industrial strength wheels on and pray I don't get anymore flats. The problem is they weigh a ton and I always feel like I'm riding with a parachute on when I use them. So, I guess this will be great strength training. I better not get any more flats with them.