Wednesday Warrior

Lately my consistency with training has not been terribly good. I could ream off some excuses, but the point is, things are ALOT harder when I do them sporatically.

I rode up Silver Star yesterday from home to meet up with Andrew and Maddy. In my memory, this was a moderately hard ride. Flat to the base of the hill, then climbing for just over an hour.

The first ego check was having to keep it in the mini-ring on the flats to keep my HR 15 below LBP. About 20 minutes into my ride I realized that I was going to be about an hour longer than expected, and that my water bottle would likely not last. Time to conserve...

I had ridden this ride about a month about and froze my tooshie off as the clear day turned to blizzard half way up. So this time, I made sure I had warmer booties on, winter gloves and toque, and an extra layer on the body. After climbing for about 20 minutes, I had stripped it all down, and had no more room left in my pockets to hold this extra apparel.

The climb was non-eventful. I kind of enjoyed the slow grind, and cars gave me lots of room. At some point this all changed. I was out of water, and had finished a gel about 45 minutes before. Since I'd been pushing at LBP +5 for the last 1.5 hrs (no choice), I was in a bit of a state. I was beginning to get very cold but was too bonky to stop and put on warm clothes. I lost the shoulder, and had to scoot up on the icy bank as the road narrowed. The last 30 minutes was pure survival. When I made it to our condo, Andrew had to take my shoes off for me, and put food in front of me.

Soup and a hot shower made me human again. Would I do it again? Of course! I'm sadistic like that. I might take a little more fuel next time though.