Even flat intervals hurt

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss hills. Hills force you to be honest and push hard. When the road is flat and there's no one to make you go hard except yourself, it's way too easy to cheat. I think this is going to be a problem in the future.

Luckily, it wasn't a problem today. The weather was so iffy for most of the afternoon and I was so antsy to get out and try the new roads that Todd showed me that when I finally got out there motivation was not an issue. I had all the motivation in that world and I was ready to go ride for an hour, hammer out some hard intervals, then ride for another hour back. That was the plan. Unfortunately, the wind had other ideas.

Wind is a normal problem, especially in flat areas, but today was a special kind of wind. It was blowing from every direction at once and when it decided to gust into my face it could knock 10mph off my speed. I was pushing into it as hard as I could and moving at about 12mph. I don't like wind.

So, when I got out to the area I had decided to explore (one of the race courses for GVCC) I was already more than warmed up. But, I was there, the sun was out, my iPod was ready and intervals awaited. I turn on the music (random play started with Kanye West - Glory, good choice for intervals) and start the suffering. Three minutes, flat out as hard as I could go. The first one is always the hardest. I chose to do nice intervals today, so I let myself recover completely. Then start up again for another three minutes. Repeat four times. By the time I had finished four, I was done. Well, my legs were done. I knew they'd get me home, but if I tried for a fifth or to go exploring bad things would happen. So I headed home.

I've gotta say, it felt really good to get out there and push myself to the limit again. I had the biggest, stupidest grin on my face as I was riding home. The wind was still going strong, but it had decided to stay at my back all the way home. Nothing like riding home at 25mph despite having trashed my legs. When I got off my bike my knees were wobbly and it hurt to walk up the stairs, exactly what I wanted to feel.

One more important note for today: That course is going to suit me perfectly in a race. It'll be a few weeks before we go out there, but I should be able to rock that course. I can just hope that the crit on Tuesday will be similar. I should probably work on my cornering for that crit, too. Hmmm... maybe tomorrow.