3x up the nemesis

After 3 days at the beach visiting my parents and a 7hr drive with two kids my motivation wasn't the highest. The plan called for 2.5-3h HARD road ride or mountain bike ride.

When the motivation isn't there sometimes it is easier to let the terrain force you to motivate. Meaning you aren't going to get to the top or get home w/o having to work for it.

I decided to try some hill repeats up Old Farm. This is my nemesis trail that I use as a benchmark for fitness and time trial up it. Current record is 17:08. I can't even remember the last time I rode up it more than once in a ride. It's the kind of thing you just want to go up once. Going down is no piece of cake either.

Going for time on Old Farm is similar to racing smart. Ride with your head first then finish with heart. Go out too hard at the begining and it is all over. Seeing as this is training and not racing I opted to blow it all at the start and overgear. It was easy to immediately redline and then pinball all the way to the top
18:27. Well off record pace.

The trip down was scary as my head was still in the clouds.

2nd time. Opted to start really easy and try to ramp it up later. Forget about it. I was blown. Granny geared a lot and felt like I was going backwards. 21:35 two minutes more than the first time.

Back down again.

3rd time. Opted to stay out of the granny gear. 22/28 was lowest gear allowed. It actually felt much better than the 22/32. It wasn't a total mashfest, but felt better than the granny. I think the granny is only good if you've got the heart to spin it fast enough to make a difference.

20:57. Nothing to write home about. But I was happy that I was faster on the 3rd time than the 2nd time.

Timed the way down too: 6:32. Tried to keep my head up to look down the trail for anyone else coming up. There are several corners that I still can't figure out how to dial in. The biggest problems I've got are dragging the brakes too much, and not weighting the front wheel enough in turns.

The way home has several rolling hills. Typically I'm so blown that I can just meander up them. This time I tried to stand and push. Made it home with that tired naseaous feeling.

One day I'm going to go for 4x