UltraRob's Adventures

With all my training, I hadn't gotten my taxes done even though I had done enough to know I was getting a refund. Thanks to the ability to e-file I managed to get them submitted Monday night with 30 minutes to spare.

I didn't do much riding over the weekend since I'm doing a low volume week but with high intensity. I was going to do my hard ride on Saturday but when I got up the wind was gusting 40-50 mph and my allergies were bothering me. Also with the wind, I didn't think I'd be able mentally to push myself as hard as I needed . Instead I did it on Sunday which ended up being a very nice day. I rode up to Woodland Park which is about a 2,000 foot climb and did some Low LT intervals. Then I came back down and did the climb to Cave of the Winds 6 times. I was on my new bike (more on that in another post) and don't have my cyclo computer mount on it yet so I'm not sure exactly how far it is or how much vertical it is. I'm sure I have a file around somewhere but my guess is it's about 0.7 mile and according to Google Earth it's about a 400 foot climb. It's hard to tell from the Google Earth image but the steepest parts are right after it straightens after the switchbacks and on the left fork of the road at the top. I think it at least has to be in the 20% grade range. I was going hard on the lower section and then recovering a little between the steepest sections and then going all out on the top part. The first 5 times up I was consistently around 7 minutes and 45 seconds and felt like I was about to puke at the top. The last time up I dialed it back a little and did it in just over 8 minutes and didn't feel so bad at the top.