There's just something about Torrey...
I don't know what it is. The last few weeks, no matter how much I don't feel like racing up Torrey, I end up doing it anyway. But let me start at the beginning.
Yesterday afternoon the clouds rolled in and rolled my mood right out with the clear skies. I always really look forward to the Friday evening swims, but for some reason yesterday, I just wasn't in the mood. I did have things to get done at work, but I've never let that stop me from leaving early on a Friday before. Then once I got home from work, I was already not looking forward to riding on Saturday. I was definitely in a funk and didn't much care about working out. I was really hoping it would be raining when I got up so I'd have an excuse not to go.
But there is one thing that motivates me to train--I already have my carb loading dinner (and lunch, and dinner the night before), so I had to get a workout in. I also did want to take advantage of the cloudy day which I figured would make for a much more pleasant ride than the previous week. So I forced myself to go to the ride.
The beginning was slow as always. I kept up pretty well for the sprints on Morena. I probably could have pushed a little harder even. I think I heard people making disparaging comments about my ride techniques a couple of times. Once I heard someone talking about a newbie in the pack. I thought he was talking about the guy in front of me since he specifically mentioned that guy's bike, but that guy was wearing a Cyclo-Vets jersey, so I'm not sure. Later on Morena, I sprinted up to catch up with John's group. I caught up a little faster than I wanted and slowed down to stay behind him, which was my strategy. I heard people behind me then complaining about how if I was gonna go, I should go. Well--I think they were talking about me.
Anyway--I was with the group through the bike path and held my own up to Doyle Park. On the way to Doyle, my front tire felt a little low, but I kept riding and figured I'd check it at the break. As is often the case though, I got distracted at Doyle and totally forgot about my tire. I didn't remember until we started riding again. After riding for a few blocks, we hit a stoplight and I felt my tire. Sure enough--it was WAY low. As luck would have it, I happened to have stopped the tire right where there was a thorn. It took me several tries to get it out, but I finally did and then stopped on the other side of the road and changed the tube while the rest of the group rode on. At this point, I was happy for the break and thought about just riding home alone. But I really hated riding home by myself the last time I did it, so I realized I could take a different route than the rest of the group and should be able to catch up with them at Torrey. While the rest of the group took a route through Sorrento Valley and Del Mar to only ride up TP, I followed Genesse and rode down Torrey. My timing worked out perfectly and once I got halfway down, I saw the group on the way up. I still wasn't really feeling like racing up Torrey, but I was considering trying to catch the group. I even decided to do some extra preparation by emptying one of my water bottles that was totally full. There's no need to carry extra weight up Torrey! I hit the bottom, had to wait for some traffic, then turned around and started up...
TORREY PINES.
Last week when I did Torrey, I started at the bottom from a rolling start after coming down the hill on the coast. This time I had to stop and turn around, so I didn't have that extra advantage. Still I got a good rhythm going right away. I was in the small chain ring and about the middle in back. I stood up and had a really good cadence going (for some reason, I can't see my cadence on motionbased). I passed a few pretty slow riders and could see the back of the CV pack ahead. I kept up around 14.5 mph for a while towards the bottom, but once it steepened, I dropped to around 11.5 mph. For a while, it seemed like I wasn't catching up with the group, so I picked up the pace. I alternately sat and stood and just kept hammering. All the sudden I saw the flatter part up ahead of me. It seemed like I had gotten there really fast, so I kept pushing to finish strong. As I came up to the flatter part, I finally caught and passed the back of the group. I kept pushing past them and finally crossed the light at....
6:42!!!
That's right--a full 17 seconds faster than last week!! I don't know what the difference was. Maybe it was the cooler weather. Maybe it was the extra break I had while changing the tire. Maybe it was the extra motivation of the pack being so far ahead and me not wanting to ride home alone. In any case, I had a new personal record on Torrey. I still don't think this is my best possible time. My heartrate never hit 90% up Torrey. I know I can hold my heartrate that high for several minutes, so I know I can push harder. And once again, this was a day where I didn't really feel in the mood to race. I can't wait to see what time I can get when I try on a day where I am really in the mood to push!
The rest of the ride went well. On the long climb from Sorrento Valley to Miramar, I kept up with the group. Then along Miramar, I didn't feel like racing on Kearny Villa again, but I stayed with the group all through there and it actually felt easy.
After the ride, I was once again in a really good mood. I don't know if that's just from the endorphins generated by the ride or because I set a new PR and then managed to keep up with the group for the rest of the ride. I guess I'll find out when I have a bad day on the bike and see how I feel. I hope I don't end up being too depressed from an off day.
Yesterday afternoon the clouds rolled in and rolled my mood right out with the clear skies. I always really look forward to the Friday evening swims, but for some reason yesterday, I just wasn't in the mood. I did have things to get done at work, but I've never let that stop me from leaving early on a Friday before. Then once I got home from work, I was already not looking forward to riding on Saturday. I was definitely in a funk and didn't much care about working out. I was really hoping it would be raining when I got up so I'd have an excuse not to go.
But there is one thing that motivates me to train--I already have my carb loading dinner (and lunch, and dinner the night before), so I had to get a workout in. I also did want to take advantage of the cloudy day which I figured would make for a much more pleasant ride than the previous week. So I forced myself to go to the ride.
The beginning was slow as always. I kept up pretty well for the sprints on Morena. I probably could have pushed a little harder even. I think I heard people making disparaging comments about my ride techniques a couple of times. Once I heard someone talking about a newbie in the pack. I thought he was talking about the guy in front of me since he specifically mentioned that guy's bike, but that guy was wearing a Cyclo-Vets jersey, so I'm not sure. Later on Morena, I sprinted up to catch up with John's group. I caught up a little faster than I wanted and slowed down to stay behind him, which was my strategy. I heard people behind me then complaining about how if I was gonna go, I should go. Well--I think they were talking about me.
Anyway--I was with the group through the bike path and held my own up to Doyle Park. On the way to Doyle, my front tire felt a little low, but I kept riding and figured I'd check it at the break. As is often the case though, I got distracted at Doyle and totally forgot about my tire. I didn't remember until we started riding again. After riding for a few blocks, we hit a stoplight and I felt my tire. Sure enough--it was WAY low. As luck would have it, I happened to have stopped the tire right where there was a thorn. It took me several tries to get it out, but I finally did and then stopped on the other side of the road and changed the tube while the rest of the group rode on. At this point, I was happy for the break and thought about just riding home alone. But I really hated riding home by myself the last time I did it, so I realized I could take a different route than the rest of the group and should be able to catch up with them at Torrey. While the rest of the group took a route through Sorrento Valley and Del Mar to only ride up TP, I followed Genesse and rode down Torrey. My timing worked out perfectly and once I got halfway down, I saw the group on the way up. I still wasn't really feeling like racing up Torrey, but I was considering trying to catch the group. I even decided to do some extra preparation by emptying one of my water bottles that was totally full. There's no need to carry extra weight up Torrey! I hit the bottom, had to wait for some traffic, then turned around and started up...
TORREY PINES.
Last week when I did Torrey, I started at the bottom from a rolling start after coming down the hill on the coast. This time I had to stop and turn around, so I didn't have that extra advantage. Still I got a good rhythm going right away. I was in the small chain ring and about the middle in back. I stood up and had a really good cadence going (for some reason, I can't see my cadence on motionbased). I passed a few pretty slow riders and could see the back of the CV pack ahead. I kept up around 14.5 mph for a while towards the bottom, but once it steepened, I dropped to around 11.5 mph. For a while, it seemed like I wasn't catching up with the group, so I picked up the pace. I alternately sat and stood and just kept hammering. All the sudden I saw the flatter part up ahead of me. It seemed like I had gotten there really fast, so I kept pushing to finish strong. As I came up to the flatter part, I finally caught and passed the back of the group. I kept pushing past them and finally crossed the light at....
6:42!!!
That's right--a full 17 seconds faster than last week!! I don't know what the difference was. Maybe it was the cooler weather. Maybe it was the extra break I had while changing the tire. Maybe it was the extra motivation of the pack being so far ahead and me not wanting to ride home alone. In any case, I had a new personal record on Torrey. I still don't think this is my best possible time. My heartrate never hit 90% up Torrey. I know I can hold my heartrate that high for several minutes, so I know I can push harder. And once again, this was a day where I didn't really feel in the mood to race. I can't wait to see what time I can get when I try on a day where I am really in the mood to push!
The rest of the ride went well. On the long climb from Sorrento Valley to Miramar, I kept up with the group. Then along Miramar, I didn't feel like racing on Kearny Villa again, but I stayed with the group all through there and it actually felt easy.
After the ride, I was once again in a really good mood. I don't know if that's just from the endorphins generated by the ride or because I set a new PR and then managed to keep up with the group for the rest of the ride. I guess I'll find out when I have a bad day on the bike and see how I feel. I hope I don't end up being too depressed from an off day.
