Something clicked

My ambitious plan for the weekend fell through, and I didn't get on Paris until this morning, so I decided to make the most of it. I rode down to the course that so thoroughly beat me up in the last GVCC race. It was about an hour ride to the course, each lap would take about 30-40 minutes, and an hour back home. I planned to do 2 laps, but had to cut it down to one because I wouldn't have had enough gatorade. In heat like this the last thing I wanted was to be in the middle of nowhere with no liquids.

When I got to the course I decided to sprint up every hill (read: Fartlek workout, painful, but effective). There were probably 10 small hills, often called power or sprinter's hills, along the 9 mile course. All were steep (10% or higher grade, I would bet) and short (less than a minute to the top). I would usually pick a landmark at the crest of the hill and try to sprint to that. The goal with a sprint is to keep accelerating the entire time. Letting speed fade away just means that in a race people will be passing you.

The first 5 or 6 hills went okay, but I couldn't maintain my speed to the top. My legs slowed down, I had to drop into lower gears and if I had been in a race I would have been shelled off the back. Then there was a long, painful, false flat section into a brutal headwind. False flats look like they should be flat and easy but are actually uphill. They're awful, and compounded with a headwind are even worse. I'm going to once again state how bad the winds are out here. I've never seen anything like it in Portland. The gusts blow my bike all over the place, and I frequently have to lean my body into the wind just to maintain a straight line. It's crazy.

Back to the hills. After terrorizing my legs with the false flats, I reach another set of little hills. I expect them to go worse than the first ones, since I'm now tired. So I start in a slightly easier gear than I would normally. I stand, and try to maintain both my overall speed and a high pedal turnover. Somehow, something in my brain and legs clicked. I flew up the hill, accelerating the entire way, even managing to shift UP a gear before the top. My legs were still moving as quickly as they had been at the base of the hill. I was ecstatic.

This probably seems like a very small thing, but for me it's a pretty big deal. I'm not a hill climber and never will be, but I'm strong and should be able to use pure power to my advantage on these "sprinter's hills." Finally, I managed to get to the point in my training where I've got the right combination of fitness, muscle strength, and technique to do what I know I should be able to do. If I've done it once, I can do it again.

At least in theory, I didn't manage it on the last few hills of the course. But I'm okay with that, I'll make it happen again soon.

The entire ride today was about 42 miles, in a little less than 3 hours. I'll be going for a short ride tomorrow morning with Katharine from school (the one who's husband is a Cat 2 roadie), and then racing on Tuesday. We'll be racing on a course I've never seen before, so I have no idea what to expect. My goal: Stay with the pack for at least one full lap.