daverea.com

…another post in a series of updates on Fat Tire Festival training rides.

Far more prepared for a ride than when I set out on #3, yesterday’s training ride went surprisingly well – despite the 96° temperature outside! I made sure to prehydrate before hand, and took some extra time to stretch. Ride #4 was my first two-lap attempt.

Training Ride 4

• Date: July 7th, 2010
• Distance: 10 miles
• Time: 1:07:04 (including warm-up and two holy-crap-sweaty-eyes-can’t-see stops)
• Elevation gain: 1,544 feet
• Thoughts on starting: Just go slow. This isn’t the race. Just have fun. Really. I mean it.
• Thoughts on finishing: Yeah, two laps hurts about twice as much as one lap hurts…

Interestingly, I think I felt a true, honest-to-goodness “second wind” about 60% of the way through this ride. It didn’t feel like I expected – a big burst of “I can do anything!” energy – actually, it was more like a sudden transition from “not being there” to “being there”. I went from repeatedly reminding myself not to stare at the ground passing below my bottom bracket (“that’s history by the time you’ve seen it!”) to actually being in the ride again! Of course, it only lasted ’till about 80% of the distance, but that was enough to get me through the toughest of the climbs, and on my way to the final descent.