I had to go double check my calendar before I sat down to write. I wasn’t mistaken, it is definitely June. While the bastardly conduct of O. M. Winter is well documented, I haven’t been talking about the bitchitude of spring. For weeks, I’ve had flashbacks of living in the misery of the Wet Side. Mother nature was at it again this week with an onslaught of potential misery.
Act 1 (Monday): I was turned around by snow and tree shrapnel across the road on Larch Mountain. A cold descent followed. It reminded me of getting turned around by snow on Mt. Spokane a few weeks ago. O. M. is still haunting me. Read more
Recently I came to the conclusion that I haven’t been training enough. I seem to have been mired in a performance plateau that stretches back as far as last year: not getting better, not getting worse. One thing that I believe has improved greatly is my recovery on a day-to-day basis and also between intense efforts during a race. This is good because Joiel identifies recovery as the key difference between the elite riders and everyone else. I think some of this has to do with my emphasis on more rest this year and higher intensity training.
So am I really in a plateau? Exhibit 1 was Foothill road yesterday. It had me bent over coughing up lung residue for a couple hours. Nothing crushes you like The Hill. My time wasn’t that great either. On the other hand, it is hard to tell how much slower the new boulder seal is compared to previous years. I had postulated earlier that it was a minute slower. Other than Timberston and myself, no one else has been doing to it give a reference point to previous years. The local “racers” aren’t nutting up and riding their bikes. The rest of the day I tried to grapple with my Foothill deamons. Then, I turned my attention to my long climb field test scheduled the next morning. Read more
