Could Be Better

I spent the last couple of days in Dodgeville doing some rides around the Dodgeville and Blue Mounds area getting my ass kicked by some nice long and steep hills. I did a fair amount of mileage, 81 miles on Monday and 63 on Tuesday and I didn't exactly feel that great either day. Monday was a long 5.25 hours and the ride ended with me cold, tired, and bonking after doing some good climbing, with the most daunting climb being the one up to the tower at Blue Mounds State Park. I felt pretty good to start with and then as the climbs began to take their toll along with the 25mph winds I started to slow down quite a bit. I'm still heavier than I want to be and I could tell that my extra weight was not helping me get up hills any faster, I still don't think I'm any faster up the hills than last year either. After I got back to my car at Governor Dodge State Park I loaded up on a carbo recovery drink, changed clothes and headed to my hotel to shower and change. After that I ate a fair amount of food from Pizza Hut and sat in the hot tub at the hotel to help with my recovery. I was asleep by 9:45 and woke on Tuesday to ride with Dave on a route that would again take us back to the big climb up to the tower at Blue Mounds. I could tell when I woke up Tuesday that I was still sore and tired from Monday's ride, and I knew it was going to be a slow day for me. As the ride progressed I could tell that in spite of everything I did to recover I was going to struggle big time up the climbs. Sure enough I was dying after the first few climbs and had nothing in my legs to get up them at faster than 6-7 mph. Dave was doing really well and in spite of the 10lbs extra that he has on me he was able to put me to shame on the climbs. I know that I have a lot of work to do to get back in to my old climbing shape but I felt pretty pathetic on these 2 rides. I guess that is what I went for, to improve my climbing, and if anything I think I will reap the benefits of struggling for these 2 days later down the road. It can only help me to do these types of rides and I really can't wait to do it again once my fitness is a little bit better. I did have the new CannonDale with me and it felt really good, the bike certainly wasn't holding me back as this bike is equipped for speed. It has all carbon Campy Record components and Easton carbon bars, stem and seatpost. The one thing I really liked was the Easton flat-top handlebars, they feel great on the hands when climbing and they were great on the few flat roads when I was able to rest my forearms on the flat tops. I would recommend these bars to anyone, they are a big upgrade over the normal round top bars.
So anyways, the training will go on today with a 2 hours recovery ride on the trainer today as it's pretty wet outside and then tomorrow will be another ride of about 3.5 - 4 hours depending on the weather, which right now calls for 49 degrees and 20-30mph winds. It will be tough to fight the wind so we'll see how much I can handle. Friday is supposed to be 54 and partly cloudy so I'm looking at doing about 5-5.5 hours on Friday hopefully with less wind and then Saturday I'll be doing the first Drop the Doc ride of the year in the morning. I have some family obligations from 2:00 until 5:00 on Saturday afternoon so I may be able to squeeze some more riding in after the Doc ride but we'll see. If I can't get in another ride before then I will ride the trainer some more at night after the family stuff. Sunday is calling for a 40% chance of showers with a high of 59 degrees so if the rain holds off I'll be doing another 4.5 to 5 hours. Well, that's it for now, I'll definitely update in the next couple of days, until next time.......