Hill Day Yesterday

I had a great ride yesterday! I was able to climb Hines Hill which has been my nemesis ever since I discovered it. I've never been able to make it up will sitting and spinning in the saddle, I've always had to stand and pump, even at the end of last year. I feel like that's a great sign starting off this year!!!

Here is the elevation profile of the "big hill" portion of Hines Hill Road:
150 ft. of elevation gained in about .25 miles! My heart rate hit 228. :)



This road is a great training road, once you get your ass kicked by the steep part the rest of the road is pretty much uphill leaving your legs burning.

Ray's

Here's a picture of probably 1/5 of the entire place!

No, not Ray Charles! Ray's Indoor MTB Park, in Lakewood! That's where I spent my afternoon and evening off yesterday! The place is ridiculously fun and there is tons to do from the foam pit, pump course, trials course and XC course to the expert area and grind park. There is something for everyone that rides on non-motorized, fat two wheels.

It's exactly like the dozens of MTB articles describes the place. Very chill! You can sit in many different places and watch the action happen as much as you can go join in the action!

I think I rode for about 4.5 hours all together with only one complete wipe out on the pump track, one slam of the pinky against a random guard rail and blisters on each finger due to the ripping of the course!

I also met some fellow bloggy friends from the Cleveland Triathlon Club who were having an event yesterday evening! I hope they enjoyed themselves as well!

Awkward

Awkward is finding out that the lady in your Spinning class that is there every day when you are is actually your client.

I was in class yesterday warming up and clamoring away with another guy their when he asked what the name of the company was that I work for. I said Hitchcock Fleming and Assoc. and as soon as I said that the ladies head popped up and looked straight at me. She said I thought your voice sounded familiar. Here it ended up being the marketing lady for Goodyear's Retail Stores division who I was on the phone with a few times on Monday trying to iron out some production issues. Small world???

My Spinning class felt tainted for a minute, I got over it!

Paralympic Games

Hi bloggy peeps! Don't forget the Paralympic Games have start Friday in Vancouver, check them out! Go USA!!!!

First Ride of 2010!!!

I got out today for the first ride of the season! It's always an amazing feeling to get out and ride. I put down 29.1 miles and dropped into the valley and then road back out. The normal paved hike and bike trail is still snow covered so I had to take to the roads. Here is the run down:

Weather - cold. It was 33 degrees when I started and 40 degrees when I finished. I was toasty warm thanks to all of the cold weather gear I have in vested in over the winter. It could have been about 10 degrees colder before I would have started to feel slightly uncomfortable. Otherwise, sunny with a 5mph breeze from the SW. Nice!

Bike - I set up the TREK 5000 last night and got all of the gear ready. It felt great, the shifting was a little goofy and could use some adjusting of the STI levers. For whatever reason it was not catching all the time when downshifting on both sides. Hey, they bike is carbon fiber and was built in 1996, it's lasted this long with a little TLC. I also installed some tire liners because all of the crap on the road ends up on the side with the plowing over the past 3 months. So there are plenty of glass shards, metal this and thats and potholes trying to slow me down. They worked so far, no flats!

Me - Felt great, blood sugar was on point with a little snack before I started and a PowerBar Power Gel half way through. The Spinning classes have me legs feeling great, lots of power churning up hills in heavier gears than I finished last season with! Now I get to work on the endurance. Recovery was great as well, I think that has to do with my increased focus on breathing and relaxing my upper body.

All and all I would give today's ride an 8.5 out of 10! A great start to the year with a little bit of tweaking I can be in performance shape before I know it!

Happy riding!!!