Remember the four key elements? Today was about ‘rest’. Today’s 36-mile ride was a nice recovery ride mostly downhill. It was a chilly 55 degrees when we started at 9 am – yes, 9 am! Normally our starts are between 6:45 and 7:30, but we had a little rest after yesterday’s big ride and there wasn’t any rush to get into Missoula today given that we would arrive in the morning and likely not have hotel rooms ready.
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The name of the game for today’s 115 mile-ride was about maintaining a cool and even pace throughout the first 102 miles to ensure you had something left in the tank for the 5-mile climb to the top of Lolo Pass. It’s also about ensuring that you keep your mind focused on your ability to manage and complete the climb.
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As I rode today, I thought about the key elements to manage on this ride – or any ride. Of course, given that we are spending hours on a bike, we have nothing but time to think about these things.
I realized that there are four key elements to manage. There are several other uncontrollable elements like the weather, road conditions, etc… But, if you can focus on those within your control and establish a system of managing them, it makes the ride manageable and comfortable in spite of its challenges.
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Today’s ride was a bit intimidating on paper. It was 99 miles with three uphill inclines. There were only 4 climbs, but the last climb was punchy at mile 97 running through to mile 99 after a long day. What was on paper, however, and what happened in real life […]
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On paper, some days don’t look terrible. But paper doesn’t always tell the story. Today was a 71 mile ride from Hermiston to Walla Walla. The ride was mostly uphill with a few small climbs. Overall, not a bad day. I didn’t feel great by the end of the day as we rolled into Walla Walla for the last 5 miles. I’m not sure what it was but I felt spent and tired. My stomach didn’t feel great. Will need to do some tweaking of my eating tomorrow.
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The theme of today that stood out most was cycling as a team sport. Many think that cycling is an individual sport and that you hop on your bike and ride alone. In many cases, that is true. There are times on this ride that this is how the day plays out. We all have different strengths and abilities. Oddly, there are times when you feel surprisingly strong or surprisingly tired for no reason. What we each understand as individual riders on this trip is that you ride your own ride. If someone rides ahead or drops back – that’s okay. You will meet up or catch up at the next rest stop.
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Today’s ride was to be one of the hardest we will have. No question. It was 94 miles of hard. The elevation map above tells the story. We climbed 7800 miles today with most of it in the second half of the ride. It was hot. It was uncomfortable. It was a ride to test one’s fortitude and grit. I’m pleased to say that I finished this ride in spite of it being the hardest 94 miles I’ve ridden in my life.
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The morning part of the ride was spectacular. We rode a two-lane road most of the way through majestically towering trees lining the roads on either side. There were spectacular vistas punctuating the route. Beautiful as it was, it wasn’t easy. There were gentle and not so gentle climbs, so my Strava and legs tell me.
The climb we faced around roughly 63 miles end was never ending. We would come around a corner and see it taunting us having just jumped out from hiding behind the trees. Sadly, we already knew it was coming as our Garmin bike computers were showing us the elevation ahead. As luck would have it, it was on a fairly open and sunny portion of the ride with very little shade to be found. To add insult to injury, there were times the wind picked up to add to the fun.
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This was the first week in some time where I have had a day off from training. Right now, I train 7 days a week – and most of those days have two training sessions with the exception of one or two but they tend to have one longer session. […]
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This past week was a good mix of swim/bike/run and strength. It was a decent week overall given that every discipline was up week over week in terms of time. My legs felt a little heavy by the time Friday rolled around and my swim was less than spectacular, but […]
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