This week is training camp, Camp Cohutta. It is my spring break and I'll take two days off from work. My goal is to get three hard rides in and two or three smaller rides. 
Last night I got out for about 10 miles with 1500' climbing ... hill repeats on the Karate Monkey SS in town. Today was one of the bigger rides. I rode south of Brushy Fork and Flint Ridge to hit Mullbury, Bear Mountain and a bunch of other barely-roads. I logged 54 miles, 3:36, with 4k ft vertical. It was a little short of a "big ride", but it was an honest effort. Wednesday is my very big ride, so I can save a little leg for that. 
It was a gorgeous day with sunshine and temps around 65. I wore shorts and a short sleeve jersey for the first time. There was a stiff wind of 15mph out of the southwest which made the return trip hard, but otherwise perfect. 
As I am logging these longer rides, a few things come to mind. Foremost, I feel my legs fatiguing much too quickly. Forty miles in, and I can feel them going. I can still climb, but my speed drops considerably. I just need more miles and more saddle time to prep for Cohutta's distance. This year the Cohutta course is changed with more single track and now 14k feet climbing. I am targeting 10 hours time, so I need my longer rides to be 6 - 9 hours. I'm just not there yet. I also need stronger climbing legs. My speed is just too low. I feel like I am crawling instead of tempo-ing up a hill. More strength and more stamina. I've noticed my speed dropping over the past two weeks, since the Southern Cross race. So maybe it is just fatigue from training, but I don't think I'm logging that many miles to make the speeds slower. Maybe my older body just needs more recovery leading in to a race.
No comments:
Post a Comment