Hitting the Hills

Monday 13th May 2013

Bike ( 12.02 Miles / 01:01:12 / 11.80 mph / Cadence 66 / HRZ 2 / Elevation 427M)

After my feelings of being unfit at the Tri on Saturday and now that the elbow is starting to feel a good bit better I decided to hit the hill in order to build some strength and fitness.

The weather wasn't exactly an incentive but I toughened up and put on pretty much my winter cycling gear (in Flipping MAY!!) and got on the bike.
Temperature was about 5C and the wind was blowing pretty hard.  It was really something to look forward to, never mind the fact that it was a hill session.

I set off optimistically and managed a decent stab at the first ascent.  Time was a bit slower than I had done the last time but that was OK as conditions are rough.
The descent was just plain scary.  I normally can get up to mid 30s (mph) and even 40 mph on the way down.  Tonight my top speed was 24 mph.  I was on the brakes and getting blown all over the place and the combination of that and wet roads from the rain and hail made things pretty interesting.  By interesting I actually mean scary!!

The second and third climbs were tough going and my time was getting progressively slower.
By the time I got to the bottom of the hill to turn and come back up for a forth go I was questioning the wisdom of my actions but decided to go anyway.

The forth climb wasn't too bad but I really felt weak.  Then I realised why!

I had consumed a grand total of about 300 calories today and it was becoming obvious that I was low on energy.
Glad to get to the top and wind my way down again I made for home to get some food in as soon as possible.

I'm glad I did the session and I will be doing it all over again tomorrow night with the Tri Club.  Oh great!