Once again...but slower this time

You know how it is. You come back from a ride that has kicked you all over the asphalt and left you for dead, and immediately begin planning a strategy for fairing better the next time. Well, maybe not "immediately", but as soon as the pain begins to fade.

Such was the case this past week, as I contemplated the fun I could have dishing out the pain to my riding partner, Russ, by dragging him around the Winnetaska loop that The Beast and I rode on Memorial Day. In fact, such was my desire to dish out a spanking that I didn't even climb on the bike after Tuesday, because I wanted my legs to be fresh.

Okay, I know, I really wasn't motivated by dishing out a lot of hurt, but I was motivated by wanting to feel stronger throughout the ride the second time around.

Friday night, the storms rolled in, and Russ and I spoke on the phone. Knowing that we would use bad weather as an excuse to skip riding in the morning, I checked weather.com to be certain that we would in fact, be riding in the dry.

I beat back my early morning self, hoping that his battle at Russ' would be just as fruitless, and managed to climb from bed and onto the bike.

Sure enough, only a few minutes past the appointed time, Russ appeared out of the early morning mist (or was that humidity?) for his first ride in 2 weeks.

The morning was beautiful, and cool. As we rode, we talked about all kinds of things, and I did my best to scare him about the upcoming Cherohala Challenge, two weeks from then. Another rider rolled along with us for about 10 miles then went a shorter way. I thought it was kind of sad to waste such a beautiful morning by only doing a short ride.

We rode out through Irondale, then down Cemetery Hill, up and over Jerry Springer Hill, then through beautiful downtown Leeds, Alabama, boyhood home to Charles Barkley. Note to Chuck...take a little of your cash home and spend it. Past Leeds and out around the northeast end of Karr, and Double Oak Mountains. Southwest to Sterret, then north to Vandiver where my empty stomach was making certain that I wasn't going to pass Watson's Grocery (nothing but a BP station with a drink cooler, but you've got to love how imaginative country folk can be when naming things) without stopping for a quick shot of chocolate milk and a refill for the water bottles.

After climbing back over Double Oak Mountain, then Coosa Mountain, I introduced Russ to Belmont. Easily the toughest hill he's climbed to date. It's just over a mile long, but has extended sections at 8% and more. Part way up Belmont, Russ announced that he'd had a spiritual epiphone, and now knew for a fact what Hell is.

Wow, this is rambling...anyway, back down Old Leeds Road, through Mountain Brook, up Smyer and across Shades Crest back to home. 83 miles in 5:15 of riding time. 6 hours when you count all the times we stopped because Russ (a pediatrician) was on call this weekend and his pager kept going off.

But the whole point of this story is that we went slower than I did with Jeff on Monday, but not a lot. Just 1 mph average. But the difference in how my legs felt, and the energy I had at the end of the ride was remarkable. I felt like I could easily have done the whole ride again. Was it the slower pace? Or was it that I had done the distance once already that week? I'm guessing pace, because if anything, having done it already would have had a tiring effect.

Having just finished my biggest week (mileage wise) in several years, at 197 miles, I feel great! My big ride is coming up in less than two weeks, and I think I'm finally ready. I'll taper some this week, keep the rides shorter, but at higher intensity, and then do the same to a greater degree next week.

It's gonna be fun.