- 22.25mi Distance
- 1:23:07 Moving Time
- 1,591ft Elevation
- 199W Estimated Avg Power
- 992kJ Energy Output
- Speed 16.1mi/h avg, 45.6mi/h max
- Heart Rate 147bpm avg, 182bpm max
This ride was a milestone in my triathlon training adventure. Not a huge milestone, maybe more like a milepebble. But it was something that I felt proud of.
When my parents moved a couple of years ago to live closer to us, I jokingly suggested that I could start training for triathlons now, because they were close enough to bike to, and owned an Endless Pool. At the time it was just a lark. I was probably 50 pounds overweight and it would be at least a year before they even thought about installing the pool again, after dismantling it from their old house. Not to mention that the route between my house and theirs “ain’t flat” (to use a common expression around these parts).
Still, the idea never completely left my brain. It sort of percolated. And eventually, after a series of particular life events, I found myself training again. And the triathlon plan was a viable possibility.
This ride really solidified the reality of what I was trying to do. It wasn’t just that I had thought about doing this ride, and then eventually did it. It was that I could do it. It took weeks of training and reacquainting myself with my road bike to reach the point where I could ride 20 miles on my own without blowing up, much less on a route like this. But I did it, and that was a thing I did that I was proud of.
The ride was pretty much a steady climb for the first five miles, and included three Category 4 climbs, and my climbing muscles felt it. I learned a lot about my own personal riding on this ride, paying attention to how I positioned myself on the bike in order to focus on different muscles and relieve the pain of the persistent climb. I figured out that I could shift that pain around a lot by changing how I was sitting and leaning, and trade the effort off between different parts of my legs.
The payoff was a sweet extended downhill cruise to the flats, topping out at around 46 mph at one point, followed by watching a World Cup game with my Dad.
It was a good day, and one of the first days since starting this plan that exercise felt really, honestly good. It was great to have that feeling back again.
