2/8/99
I've been terribly lazy about training. I would ride fairly hard for a week, and then something would come up, and I'd stop for a week. Repeat this a few times and your winter training get's all mushy. I spent too much time in Los Angeles for the holidays without riding, I think. And I'm much busier in lab, so I can't take off and go riding as nearly as much I want to. So, I decided to at least do the weekend rides religiously from now on. I can put in plenty of hours in lab after the ride, even if I have to be there late at night.
Last Saturday was the second weekend ride I'd done in a while, and we went up north to the hilly area near Snohomish. There was a big turn out of people, with a quite a lot of new team members. I pushed pretty hard up the hills, so I was pretty tired. The route went up the hill to the church at the top of the hill as normal. About a third of the people went home after this point, including Don Perry. This point is important to note for later on.
The rest of the ride was still pretty hilly, and quite fast. Because of all the new people, there was some sloppiness in the way we were riding on the roads. Hopefully, we'll behave like proper road citizens next time around.
Before Don took off, he invited me to go ride with him and his work-buddy Vince up in Everett. Don said it would be an easy ride, since Vince is also trying to get back into shape. This, as it turns out later on, was pretty much a lie!
I was a bit late in getting to Don's place, so he picked me up on the road as I was trying to get to his house. We parked at Don's workplace up in Everett. Vince was already there.
As we started riding, it was alright, although I still had leg pain from the previous day's ride. Further on in the ride, I noticed that we were riding in Snohomish again - we just entered the same area from the northwest instead of the south. So it was hill-riffic all over again. And on top of that, both Don and Vince were hammering away on the flats and on the hills. I was able to keep up for a while, but about an hour into it, I just pooped out. I could go okay on the flats, but every hill, even little hills, made me slow down and suffer. Eventually, on the way back, Don and Vince took off and Don came back later with the car to pick me up. I think I was only about 4 to 6 miles away from finishing, but I was pretty glad to see Don in his car.
I think I did about 50 miles on Saturday, and 60 miles of hell on Sunday. I think my first back-to-back riding day should have been a flatter ride....