I found myself wondering this today. I don’t think I quite know the answer. I know that if my mind didn’t accept it, my body would have never been able to follow. Maybe it was my body telling my mind that it was capable of more and needed more. Is it these guys have a love hate relationship but desperately need each other to exist? Each one battling for control and needing the other to submit to its laws. I imagine this is the true battle of the Ironman.
“Tired is a state of mind, exhaustion is a state of body” (taken from Trifuel.com)
I have been very fortunate to have some really solid training sessions over the most recent weeks. Last night, I did a 30 mile ride, it was pretty solid. I used a higher cadence (pedal rotations per minute) than I normally did. I usually feel pretty good with a cadence of 75. After seeing stronger cyclist pedaling around 85-90, I decided to give it a try last night.
I noticed several things immediately. One was I was able to move faster with the same effort (judging by my heart rate). My legs didn’t feel like they were working as hard. I also noticed finding the balance point in the gears vs/ higher rpms was challenging. What I mean by that was if the gear was too low my legs were spinning way to fast with almost no resistance. If the gear was too high, I was grinding along a bit and wasnt really moving at the cadence I was striving for. I was constantly shifting in order to keep that balance point; a little bit of “float” mixed with resistance” As the road had subtle inclines and declines, I was making precision adjustments to keep the “feel” of the bike under me and able to move at a higher cadence. It seemed like a more technical ride.
I took the bike to the hills in Highland Creek and practiced my soft pedaling techniques. It is the same hill that I grinded my chain on with no problems. The K-edge Chain Catcher did save me once on a hill. I just have to figure out how to take it on. It is at the base of a decline and then has a super sudden incline. I tried to move to the small ring on the decent but had to move to the big ring because there was a lack of resistance. On the incline of the hill, I tried to move from the big ring to the small ring and I could just here the saving grace of the chain catcher. Well, I will continue to work on taking that hill since I have insurance (chain catcher).
At the end of the ride I was feeling really good. I am so confident riding the bike (still working on taking one hand off and pedaling) that I did something stupid ha! I was at an intersection and the light was red. I was trying to go slow enough that the light would turn green. I did this because I was super confident in my cycling. Well what I didn’t see was the slight incline that caused my already slow moving bike to stop. DOWN GOES FRAIZER! HA! It was at a super major intersection and it seemed to happen in slow motion! Since it happened in slow motion I had time to think SAVE THE BIKE! Well I did! With my body. I was still clipped in the pedals and wasn’t fast enough to unclip when I realized I was falling. I put out my right hand to save the bike. In doing so bruised my palm. There is a small lump there from swelling. Thank God! there was no discoloration! (broken bones?)
This is my last work day before Im off! Just a couple more hours to go. Tick Tock!
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