LABOR! Day

Here’s to a special edition of the Old Guy. I plan to post once a week, usually on weekends but since today is a Holiday, I figured I would take a few minutes to reflect on today’s ride. ugh! I figured since today is Labor Day and I didn’t have to go to work, I would spend my day laboring on my training schedule. I had 11 mile cycle on my list today, but figured I would take a new loop that totals 14 or so miles. The route is basically a square, 2 miles up, 5 miles across, 2 miles down and 5 miles back home. The 2nd half of all this is what I typically ride and I am used to the terrain. Since the route is relatively flat and my previous rides up to 10 miles have all been well accepted by my body…what the heck. Well, heck is what it turned out to be! The morning was beautiful, blue skies, small white clouds and stiff wind blowing around 20MPH. With all the fires we have had this year, and the fact we just came out of 109F weather last week, a windy 70 degree morning was very welcome. I felt so good and had been resting all weekend so I pushed the first 3-4 miles pretty hard uphill (maybe a few hundred feet in elevation) :P and didn’t really think about it. The ride felt great, a good cardio workout starting early with the climb through the north end of Redding and finally breaking into outskirts of town toward Airport road. (see the map below for detail) I slowly worked my way mostly uphill, endlessly it seemed to Knighton road where I could hit a short downhill section. Finally, I could see the signal in the distance announcing my arrival to the right-hand turn that would temporarily ease my suffering. I say suffering because in the last few hundred yards, my legs are starting to have issues with any uphill climb- no matter how small. When is this going to be over? Maybe I shouldn’t have taken this loop? Am I going to be too sore to run tomorrow? Is this going to throw off my meticulous schedule? **STOP** where is this negative thinking coming from? I am going to be fine and this obstacle will make me stronger! It always does. I am now heading up churn creek road, a familiar route for me, finally. Funny, I seem to be using much lower gears than usual :) how much slower is this going to be? I want to try and keep up my 14MPH pace. The last leg of my loop has a nice 100 yard step climb to prep me for the last 3 miles of the ride. It sure did its job- I am wiped! Finally home, I jump off my bike and prepare to jog a few yards to try and get used to what it is going to feel like during a transition in the triathlon. So I jump off my bike and I can’t feel my legs- whoa! Hold me up! Dang, I could barely walk let alone jog. It doesn’t matter, I jog anyway…for maybe 30 yards and return. Okay, I think I know what this is going to be like. I will handle it. Done! What a day on the bike- beautiful. Now we’ll have to see how well I run tomorrow. I think I have 5.3 miles on my schedule. I better get some sleep; the alarm is going off at 4:15am and its 10pm now.

Blessings,
Eric