"Because after the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is Nature's payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering" (Krabbe 1978)
Coach Alessandro sent me a training plan a while back, the final two days of which were this weekend. I was supposed to do a 3 hour easy ride on Saturday, then a 4x20min ride on Sunday. Yeah, that didn't happen.
Saturday's scheduled road ride was replaced by a trip to Chimney Rock with FarmerAndy and CaptainChaz. Charlie is arguably the fastest MTBer on the Rutgers team, and I say "arguably" only because I'm a nice guy... nobody's actually going to argue against Chaz on this one. Charlie is a guy who'll take the entire summer off, train for two weeks, show up to a race and win. Hairy-legged bastard.
Since FarmerAndy and I lack the handling skills to put our massive (MASSIVE!) engines to use offroad, Charlie was kind enough to drop some knowledge on us. Mind you, he'd already done a few hours of hot laps before we arrived. Also, he switched from his geared bike to his singlespeed.
We rolled around the park, focusing on tricky climbs and momentum-sucking obstacles. Charlie was amazingly patient and didactic, and over 90 minutes the skills I'd long ago forgotten became slightly less forgotten. When we got back to the parking lot, Andy packed it in (it is important to sleep more than 2 hours a night), but Chaz announced that he'd be taking me on a 30 minute fast lap. Seriously, bastard!
So we took off on a short loop, and true to his word, Charlie made the lap fast. He stayed just far enough ahead to act as a rabbit, forcing me to dig deep on the climbs and stay focused on the descents. I didn't bonk, but I came damn close. Chaz said that my performance Saturday may foreshadow some good results in the coming weeks' races. We'll see.
After not getting much sleep last night (and on a couch, at that!), I was tempted to not ride Sunday, but Jenks called me up to ride 1st Bridge, the nice flat 25 mile loop. Okay. Within about 3 miles, though, the plan had changed to my hilly route, with the goal of setting a new personal best up Washington Rd.
I was reluctant, because the MTBing had seriously kicked my ass. My biceps are shot from cranking on the bars, my upper back is shot from cranking on the bars, and my core is shot from cranking on the bars. Also, Jenks had already raced on Sunday. This new plan was not looking good.
I'll spare you the details of who went what pace on what part of the climb. Jenks's Powermeter data might be somewhat interesting, as our weights are somewhat comparable and he only gained about a second or two at the top. Whatever. Here's the point:
I knocked another 22 seconds off of my benchmark time. 3:41. Holler.
If you're wondering what it is that's enabled these performances, the answer is simple: I accredit my new-found speed to my dinners last week. Almost every night, I ate:
- Double-stacker burger (2 patties, bacon, and cheese)
- Onion rings
- Cheesy Tots
- Cherry Pepsi
- Vanilla Milkshake
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2 comments:
Thanks for the... uh... Thanks. I just hope my ego doesn't become so big that I become a sprinter.
And, I'm not superhuman, I trained three weeks, not two, to win the singlespeed open at Iron Hill. This year, we will see if training will allow me to compete in the expert category.
you know. . .i was fine with this post, fine that is until the end. sometimes i just hate that dudes can eat crap and go fast.
if i ate that, i would barely be able to waddle my lycrad-up ass out of the car.
damn you. damn YOU!!!!!!
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