A talking head on the local TV news broadcast mentioned how great the weather was going to be today. Nothing better than knowing that Mother Nature was going to cooperate and provide me with a great morning of riding. Unfortunately things didn't transpire as I had hoped.
Not often can I say that I've hit the wall when riding. Sure, there have been times when I have bonked, but that was over three years ago. I've got a pretty good handle on my nutritional needs when I get on the bike for long training rides. Today was different, it was all about the legs...or lack thereof.
Let's go back to yesterday. It was a long day of work and one heck of a workout on the training plan to do. Eight minute sets of thirty seconds at anaerobic pace (450+ watts) followed by thirty seconds of tempo (~250 watts); like washing your hair and rinsing'n'repeating, you continue this on/off sequence over the course of the eight minutes.
I did this three times on the slopes of Sierra Road. Don't ask me why I felt so inclined to do these on a hard climb, but it had been a few months since I last climbed that beast. The only saving grace was the ten minutes of rest between the sets. To make it just a little harder I decided that every other 450+ watt effort would be done out of the saddle.
On the slate early this morning (7am) was a long ride up OLH and West Alpine. Halfway up OLH I knew that the legs were pretty dead, but soldiered on with an OK effort. But the HR wouldn't get up and I knew things just weren't right. At the base of West Alpine things just felt wrong. I can usually fight through this when training, but today was different. The legs had imploded and there was nothing I could do. Just put the chain in the 25t and spin up the hill. Anything over 300 watts was out of the question.
I'd rather have this happen to me during a training ride than a race. Wishful thinking...
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