Training Ride 7-21-22: Return to Cross Road

 



duunnn dunnn... duuuunnnn duun... duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn –

 

Special Jaws music for special socks.  I rolled with my other Shark based socks yesterday.  I need to wear socks that could gobble stuff up because my feet and legs were gobbling up climbs and sprints yesterday.  Plus, these socks are just really freaking cool.

 



It was time to go back to Cross from Patterson Pass. I had set out to do it the week before, but we know how that ended, with a flat back tire and me having to fix it.  I have 90 miles on that tire now and it seems to be doing good.  So, I do what I do every Wednesday when I am going to ride a hilly secluded road alone and I put on my bright yellow they can see me from space neon jersey.  I call it my Coach Janna jersey because she loved her bright yellow tri and walk gear, I have gloves that match, because I am fancy.  I just want to make sure on these back roads that I stand out and people see me. 

 

Dressed in my neon bests, I headed out.  The first thing that I do when I get outside even before getting on the bike, I turn my watch on.  I am one of those people that love to see what I have done on my watch and love to go back and be able to see how far I have ridden, how long I have swum, etc…  So, watch on, I mount, and I head out.  The legs felt great for the third day of cycling in a row.  What didn’t feel so great was my ass.  After riding the two previous days my butt was a little bit sore when I put it in the saddle. 

 

I felt pretty good, but in the back of my mind was the fear.  The fear that when I got to Cross that I would not be able to get up it.  I kept telling myself well thinking like that, you will never get up it.  So, I focused on pushing my cadence and my MPH.  I focused how good it felt to be out riding.  I looked around and enjoy my surroundings. 

 

I know I have said this before in this blog and I am going to say it here again, when you can’t wait to get to Patterson Pass it takes forever, but when you don’t want to get there, it comes up on you quicker than you can possibly imagine.  Yesterday, was the latter.  I came up to Patterson quickly and it was time to start climbing.

 

Patterson is a long slow climb.  Technically, the first 6 miles of my ride are a long slow climb according to MapMyRide.  Patterson was hard, I was sweating like crazy, and thinking Dios Mio did these little rollers get bigger.  Hard isn’t always bad though.  I was having fun, can’t promise I was smiling the whole time, but I was going up.

 

Side notes here, I had noticed that I had been grinding my teeth when out riding.  I am a grinder.  I have a lot of flat smooth spots on the bottom of my teeth.  So, I have a sports bite guard. I started wearing it on rides last week.  So, I had it in yesterday.  Yesterday, when I was going up, I was really wishing I didn’t have that in my mouth.  I missed grinding my teeth as I climbed.  I felt my jaw working back and forth as I worked up the hill, but nothing was grinding, it was just slipping on the guard, the guard was working.  LOL, what is wrong with me wanting to grind my teeth?  I have issues. 

 

Then it was time.  The great battle of my time.  I was at Cross.  I thought about stopping and taking measure of it.  I also kept telling myself just go and do it, you have already climbed it, you just don’t know it yet because you are still in the past.  You are going to find out that you have done this.  It is already done.  Go, do it.  So, I didn’t stop, and I headed down because Cross going south starts going down then comes up quickly. 

 

I kept telling myself you have already done this, now go do it.  Get on the other side of it.  I also told myself to calm down.  To just peddle.  Peddle and get up.  Relax, stay in your saddle, and climb.  Don’t crank too hard.  Don’t waste the energy you will need to go up and over.  Calm, down, steady, slow and steady wins the race. 

 

I was climbing.  I was trying to huge the white line and not get to far out into the road.  I was trying to calm myself and not crank too hard.  I was coming to the apex of the climb.  I was starting to think I was losing.  I was starting to think I wasn’t going to make it. 

 

That is when things changed.  I put the death grip on my handlebars.  I started to use the power in my legs and push and crank a little bit harder.  I briefly thought to myself if you are struggling here, you will never make it up Del Valle, but I pushed that out of my head.  I held on tight, and I pushed, and pushed up the hill.    I passed the dead snake and could spit to the top of the hill.  So, I gripped tighter and pumped harder and it hit like a ton of bricks, that I was going to make. 

 

I smiled.  I think my smile was brighter than my neon yellow jersey.  I started saying out loud “I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!”  Over and over, and over again.  I was saying it because now I was cresting the hill and starting to see the downhill.  If a fat man can do a dance on a bike, I was doing it.  I was going down hill and I let out a bellow from deep in my belly and I probably woke up every animal on that slope.  I was so excited and stoked.  I was going down hill and the wind was blowing in my face, and I loved it. 

 

Cross is an unforgiving bastard.  It is coming from the south and the start of it from the north is every bit the same bastard.  See, as I am doing my happy dance on the bike and yelling at the top of my longs, and then saying over and over again “I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!” Cross decides whatever goes down must and almost immediately come back up.  So, all the sudden, I must stop my celebrations and start climbing again.  So, climb I did. 

 

Now going south on Cross after the two bastard climbs it gets to be a lot of fun.  It is all downhill, and we are talking about cruising downhill at 25 mph.  Wind in your face, sweat rolling down your face and arms and all you must do is sit in the saddle and enjoy.  That is so much fun.  I was stoked.  I had climbed up Cross from the south and the north now.  I was so happy.  I was so stoked.  However, the work wasn’t done.

 

So, I went to check my watch to see how much more time I had and that would direct me where to go.  I go and check my watch and it wasn’t recording.  It was on pause.  Happiness, started to turn to sadness.  If, I don’t have a machine telling me the good work I have done, then did I just do it? I realized two things at that point in time.  First, yes, you know that you did it.  The old Billy b would have needed the watch to validate the accomplishment you just did.  That guy is gone.  Second, is I have the Cat’s Eye on the bike.  So, if you need to know how long you have been riding and how far and your Apple Watch fails you, then the computer on you bike can tell you.  So, crisis averted. 

 



Now, I will spend a moment here to bitch about my Cat’s Eye.  The Apple Watch is constantly timing you.  Stop at a stop light, it doesn’t care, time just keeps on moving.  The Cat’s Eye says stop at a stop light and we are going to stop the timer.  The Cat’s Eye an asshole.  Look man I am not Lance Armstrong.  I need a general timer, not a precise one.  The only Tour of France I am every going to do is one for baguettes, and there won’t be a bike in site.  So, come on Cat’s Eye ease up on me and give me time when I am stop lights.  Ok, I have bitched now, moving on.

 

I did 7 climbs yesterday on my two-hour ride in total.  I climbed around 1000 feet according to MapMyRide.   In between peak climbs, I did 5 sprints where I got my cadence over 100 and my MPH over 16.  I would crank hard in quarter mile increments. 

 

I felt awesome when I got home.  I was super stoked about myself and what I had done.  I was tired.  Yes, but not sore.  I am not super sore today either, tired but I have been tired for 25 years.  I had bad dreams last night too.  The vet lost Kona.  Which means I had a dream where I lost my baby.  They told me she had moved to the clearing at the end of the path.  Then it turns out they just lost her and I found her again, so the bad dream had a happy ending.  Perhaps I just don’t rest well. 

 

So, tomorrow is 50 miles.  I have decided also that I am going to tackle the first part of Del Valle.  I put into the ride that I would climb to Mendenhall.  It’s a lot, but I can do this.   I can do this! 


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