Thursday, July 12, 2007

France training

I've adjusted my training for long multiple days of climbing in a couple more weeks.Tuesday I did 3 hrs at Lebanon Hills on the mtb. I saw Shane there with another guy a lap or two in so I rode with them for a while. If you haven't been there lately (like me) they put in a new section in the double expert loop thats pretty cool. It includes a power peddaling uphill log sectiion and one of the sweetest berms I've ridden. Wednesday I went up to North Branch by myself via the sunrise trail that goes from Hugo to North Branch. Usually I would go over to Scandia and up to Lindstom but I didn't want the straight headwind going from Lindstrom to Stacy. On my way back from North Branch I turned west at Stacy and made my way around the Carlos Avery preserve, and East Bethel. I wasn't looking forward to the 20-25mph headwind but it wasn't too bad. My legs were feeling good and I was finding the power and rhythm needed to conquer such winds.That was a 4hr day riding tempo the whole time. Then today H'wood himself invited me to go for a ride starting in Prescott. Todd (Jay's shop hand), Greg?, Jay, and myself had a hankering for some hills. H'wood grew up in this part so he knows his way around. We did alot of sweet climbing on the back roads, up and down the bluffs. Me and Todd had to wait at the top of the beginning climbs and the pace mostly was at a socializing pace. On the last big climb which was 8-10 miles from Prescott, I was riding tempo and Hollywood starts hitting my rear wheel with his front tire yelling "ya,ya!" I quickly slow down, look back to see if he's going to go around, but both he and Todd just sit behind me. I do a quick jump and set a fast pace to the top. When I get to the top H'wood is the only one there. He goes around me and the game is on. We Hammered all the way back in the headwind. I spent most of the time on the front pacing on the hills and the flats while H'wood took over on the downhills. We put on like a 10 min gap on Todd and Greg. I knew H'wood would be up for a city limit sprint into Prescott. I didn't let him down. But when he went around me way wide I look back to see like 3 cars right behind him, sorry I'm not going to whip out into traffic for a friendly sprint. I don't know how someone is going to react to something like that. He ended up beating me by a bike length. Before the sprint I was thinking about attacking him on one of the last rollers but I didn't really know where the sign exactly was. Good ride though and I was feeling stong in the winds and on the climbs. We did 3.5hrs and 3,800ft of climbing. Tomorrow I rest and maybe get a message'.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home