Learning to take Recovery Days

After Monday's ride I was pretty tired and my legs really felt the effort. Not sure if I really planned going hard on Monday, but maybe subconsciously I did since I knew I wasn't going to be able to ride on Tuesday. Not riding Tuesday was actually a very good learning experience, because it allowed me to get a good recovery for the weekly Thrasher Sufferfest known as the Wed Hill Ride.

I was well rested heading into the Hill Ride and was planning on testing my legs out to see what kind of sustained climbing efforts I could do. I didn't want to hold back, I was planning on going all out.

The pace leading to MntGate was not too bad and I was able to keep my HR at a low level. As I rounded the turn in first position, I stayed in my big ring and picked the pace up a bit as we started the climb. Shortly after, I stood up to keep the tempo high but not so high that I would blow up. No one came around and I decided to go harder. As we neared the top, I sat up a bit and spun the rest of the way. I stayed out solo for the next roller, but started to feel like if I stayed at the front pushing the pace, I'd pop later in the ride, so I slowed up and let the others come through. I sat in through the rest of the Potomac neighborhood, although, I think I might have taken one more hard pull up one of the rollers.

I sat in along MacA allowing my HR to fall back down. As we started the climb, I moved to the front and led group up. I again kept the pace high and stayed in my big ring. I stood and increased the tempo. I lead through the first roller, and then let Randy pull through so I could sit on his wheel. Towards the top, I pushed the tempo again and led over the top and down into the GFPark.

Coming up out of the Park, I accelerated up through the steep section and then jumped back onto the train as they pulled through. I sat in the rest of the way out of GFPark.

I was able to get a good recovery coming down Anglers, and we kept the pace high along MacA as we sped towards Brickyard.

I sat in leading up to Brickyard, but went hard in my big ring as we entered the steep section. My legs felt good, but man, I die when I crest and it takes about 5 secs to just let my legs cool off and I can catch my breath again. This is usually the spot that I sometimes allow too much gap cresting the top and then get dropped. Today, I felt really good as Randy and I kept going.

The rest of the ride, I tried to conserve energy and push the pace when I needed.

This was a really good ride, and I'm really happy with my conditioning at this point in time.