Anyway, we headed out Friday afternoon, and thankfully Sonora Pass had just opened that day, so we were able to take that route. We left the bay area around 4:30pm, and with a stop in Oakdale so that I could finish up work we finally pulled into Mammoth Lakes just after midnight. It was cold and windy, a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come.

Saturday morning we decided we would do a loop from Mammoth Lakes to the top of Rock Creek Road and back – it looked like it would be about 60 miles round trip and would go up the highest paved road in California (according to Mike’s guide book about cycling climbs in California). The weather was nippy and windy, and a storm system was supposed to be moving in later in the afternoon so we wanted to be done before the winds got “unsafe”, plus I had to be online for work at 5pm. We set out from Mammoth Lakes and were screaming along with the downhill and the strong tail wind (great, I thought to myself, that meant a head wind coming back which was likely to have intensified even more by then…..). We got off Highway 395 and onto the Crowley Lake loop which took us to Tom’s Place. Just as we passed Tom’s Place I heard a loud popping noise from my bike. At first I thought it was just my derailleur slipping or something (it hadn’t been shifting great lately, and definitely needs a tuneup before RAW). We turned the corner onto Rock Creek Road and the start of the 9 mile climb, and I could tell that something wasn’t right. I looked down at my wheels thinking maybe I had a flat tire or something. It didn’t look like I had a flat, but something wasn’t right, so I stopped to look closer. Sure enough, I had broken a spoke on the drive side of my rear wheel! Even after opening up the brakes the wheel couldn’t spin without rubbing on the brakes. I was incredibly bummed out, and wondered if my weekend of cycling in the Sierras had just come to an unfortunate end. I told Mike to continue on and do the ride, and that I would wait at Tom’s place, try to call some bike shops in Mammoth to see if any might be able to fix my wheel later in the day, and intended to have Mike come pick me up after finishing his ride. I called a couple bike shops and got that lined up, but then I couldn’t stand the idea of sitting waiting for 4+ hours doing nothing. I started playing with my wheel and brakes to see if I could get it to spin without rubbing the wheels. I tucked the broken spoke behind a spoke on the non-drive side so that it wouldn’t flop around, and although I couldn’t get the brakes to stop rubbing I finally decided “to heck with it, I’m going to at least start riding up the climb and see what happens”. Since it was a 9 mile climb I wouldn’t be going much faster than 6-8mph, so even if something catastrophic happened, I would be going so slowly that I shouldn’t get hurt. I figured I could always wait at the top, or start to walk down or something, but at least it would give me something to do other than sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting to be rescued!

So I set off up Rock Creek Road, a 9 mile climb with about 3,000ft of elevation gain that goes up to 10,300 feet total elevation. The bottom section I was definitely laboring, and it was pretty steep, so I quickly dropped into my easiest gear in order to not put too much stress on the already maimed rear wheel. I was starting to wonder if I’d done the wrong thing, but being as stubborn and ornery as I am, I kept going. The road leveled off a bit, but on these sections the wind was howling down the mountain, so although the gradient was less, it wasn’t much easier riding since I was fighting a vicious head wind. There was also more traffic on the road than I’d been expecting – I didn’t realize that there were some lodges and several campgrounds up the road. About a mile and a half from the top I saw Mike coming down the other way. He stopped and I told him my plan – that I was going to go to the top, and if I felt safe descending slowly I would, and that I’d continue to limp along towards Mammoth so that he could come pick me up. He continued down the climb and I continued up. The road pitched up again near the top, and I was definitely feeling the effects of the altitude (amplified by the headwind and the fact that my brakes were rubbing on my wheel while I rode – nothing like a little extra resistance training!).

Top of Rock Creek Road, 5/28/11

Top of Rock Creek Road, 5/28/11

Top of Rock Creek Road, 5/28/11

I then set about descending. The road wasn’t very technical, so I figured it would be safe if I could keep my speed fairly low – I initially was going to stay at 10mph, but ended up going about 15mph down the climb (and even crept up to almost 20mph a few times before I realized it and was able to slow down again). I could only really use my front brake (since my rear wheel was so out of true – it was wobbling violently and was mesmerizing to look at), so I just kept things under control and took my time going down the hill. It looked like it would have been an awesome descent if I could have “let er rip” since it was a fairly straight road and I had a tailwind. The bottom was definitely a bit steeper (reaffirming my earlier suspicions when I’d been suffering up that section), and it tested my ability to maintain my speed with only the front brakes. I finally got to the bottom and texted Mike to let him know that I was now about to head out onto Highway 395 and head towards Mammoth. There was more downhill towards Crowley Lake, so I again got to ride my brakes. Then I started hitting the head winds and cross winds……

The wind was definitely picking up, and there were a few sections near the Mammoth Airport where I almost got blown off the road with a couple cross wind gusts! I kept trudging along though, and finally got to the turn off towards Mammoth. I stopped again to text Mike and let him know that I was exiting 395. From 395 into Mammoth is mainly uphill, and the wind was pretty much a straight on fierce headwind. I slogged forward, and finally saw Mike a couple miles from town. At this point I figured there was no point “quitting” – I was so close that I might as well just finish, so I just rode to the bike shop. I ended up with just over 56 miles of riding in 5hrs ride time (thanks to having to go slow on the descents, and then fighting the wind the rest of the ride) and about 5,000ft of elevation gain, most of it at over 7,000ft elevation.

We went to Brian’s Bicycles, and were super impressed with the service we received! Brian (the owner) immediately set to finding a spoke for me and repairing the wheel and truing it. We were probably in there for close to an hour, and all the parts and labor were only $22! So if you ever need bike services/supplies while in Mammoth, I’d highly recommend checking out Brian’s Bicycles. In the winter he’s a Cross Country Ski store, so keep that in mind too!

We headed back to the hotel and quickly changed and then headed to the Looney Bean coffee shop so that I could logon and finish work. I had a mocha which was particularly yummy and hit the spot after a day out in the cold and wind, and some banana bread with chocolate chips in it – also very tasty! Then we headed to the hot springs just south of Mammoth and east of the airport. Shepherd’s hot spring was full, so we backtracked to “The Tub”. There was someone in it, so we waited until he left (let’s just say that he was traveling “light”, which meant not even a speedo….!). After he left we got in, but were surprised that it was only luke warm – that was very unusual. We still soaked for a while and took in the great views of the Sierras and the storm that was moving in over the crest.

Snow in Mammoth Lakes, 5/29/11. Note that Mike is wearing flip-flops!

After dinner we soaked up some more heat by using the outdoor jacuzzi at the hotel – at this point it was snowing and blowing pretty good – hard to believe it was almost June!!! Then the power went out at the hotel……great! Sunday morning the power was still out, so it meant for a cold shower – brrr!!! There was an inch or so of fresh snow on the ground, so no biking today! We instead decided to drive south to Bishop and then drive up to South Lake and Lake Sabrina and hopefully do a bit of hiking there. We stopped at the Looney Bean again for coffee (and a cherry scone!), then headed to Bishop where we stopped off at Schat’s Bakery – a must stop when in the Bishop area!!

Mike at Lake Sabrina, 5/29/11.

Rocky trail at Lake Sabrina, 5/29/11.

Mike in front of a typical rock formation at the Buttermilks, 5/29/11.

Rattlesnake at the Buttermilks, 5/29/11.

Mike at the Buttermilks, 5/29/11.

From the top we had some great views of the White Mountains on the other side of the valley, as well as the mountains behind us. And the climb had been non-technical enough that even chicken me had enjoyed it! It would have been great to have stayed and explored a bit more, but we had to head into Bishop so that I could get online for work again, so after soaking up the view for a while we headed down again. Going down was much faster than going up!! We just slid down the scree/sandy slope – it reminded me of descending down the scree slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2007 with Katie and Carson.

After re-caffeinating we grabbed pizza and wings at the Pizza Factory in Bishop and then headed north to the hot springs again. This time there weren’t as many people at Shepherd’s, so we waited there and ate our dinner as the sun set over the Sierras. Then at dusk the others left the hot springs and we were able to get in – yay – this one was MUCH warmer!! So we soaked in the hot water and watched the stars come out over the Sierras in the sub freezing temperatures – what a great way to top off the day!

Squirrel enjoying his breakfast at Convict Lake, 5/30/11.

From Convict Lake we headed south to Independence. It was much clearer than the previous day, so we could see the mountain ranges on each side of the valley. The climb up Onion Valley Road is 13 miles long and climbs 5,200ft (going from about 4,000ft in Independence up to 9,200ft at the top), and the last 10 miles are a steady gradient above 8% – yowzers! The bottom 4-5 miles of the climb are deceptive – it doesn’t even look like you’re climbing much since it’s a sloped valley floor that’s so common in the desert as it leads to the base of the mountains, but we could tell from our exertion level that we were definitely climbing!!

View from Onion Valley Road, 5/30/11.

Finally we got to the top, a little valley at 9,200 feet elevation. What a spectacular climb! It had taken about 2.5hrs to climb 13 miles, but climbs like this are what make riding a bike so incredibly invigorating and make you feel alive!! We stopped and took some pictures and put on some more layers of clothing for the descent.

Onion Valley Road is VERY windy!!

View descending Onion Valley Road, 5/30/11.

Near the bottom of the descent of Onion Valley Road, 5/30/11.

We loaded up the bikes and then continued heading south where we stopped in Lone Pine for pizza to refuel after our epic climb. Then we continued on with the long drive home, stopping in Weedpatch outside of Bakersfield so that I could get online for work again. There we met a fellow who saw our bikes and started chatting with us – turns out he’d crewed at the 508 and RAAM before, so it was cool to chat with him. Turns out he was from Canada originally as well (so he’d noticed the maple leafs on my bike and the McGill shorts that I was wearing). We finally hit the road again after 8:30pm for the long drive home, arriving after 1am.

All in all it was an epic weekend in all regards – amazing climbs on the bike, weather adversity in terms of wind, cold, & snow, bike adversity in terms of a broken spoke, beautiful scenery everywhere, bakeries, coffee shops, & hot springs! Certainly one of the better all around weekend trips we’ve done – we’ll definitely have to try and do this more often and explore some of the other epic climbs that are in the Eastern Sierras!

Mike swimming as a vulture circles above!

Mike pauses for a photo

We stuck close to shore and followed the edge of some of the bays off of the main channel of the lake. The wind was picking up, and when we headed back into the main channel the wind was so strong that I had to paddle pretty hard to stay in place and not get blown backwards. Luckily we weren’t in this section too long and then we turned to head back.

Mike approaches the turnaround of his 5.36 mile open water swim

The conditions had made the swim take longer than I expected, so it was already 2:45pm by the time I started. There’s a climb immediately as you leave Lake Del Valle, then you drop down the other side to Mines Road and start climbing again. It was warm climbing out of Lake Del Valle and the first section on Mines, but certainly not what I’d classify as “heat training”. Guess I’ll have to rely on my heat training coming from the Bikram Yoga that I’ve been doing recently. Mike started leap frogging me and taking some photos.

Climbing on Mines Road

Heading up Mines Road amongst the local patriots

Heading up Mines Road

The bottom couple of miles of Mines Road climb fairly consistently, but my legs actually felt almost-fresh – a feeling that I haven’t had in my legs for a while! With all the long rides I’ve been doing I’ve been feeling relatively run down and not particularly fresh and energetic on any of my rides recently, so the fact that I caught a glimpse of fresh legs early on this ride was a relief – hopefully if I plan the next couple of weeks carefully I’ll be maximally rested but still feel sharp when RAW starts in just over 3 weeks. The ride I had planned today wasn’t “easy” by any stretch of the imagination (climbing Mines Road and the backside of Mt. Hamilton has a lot of climbing), but it was short enough (compared to recent training rides) that it shouldn’t set me back and wear me out too much. I have the same plan for next weekend – some elevation training in the Mammoth Lakes area – hopefully some long climbs in the Eastern Sierras, but not super long mileage. Then it’ll be 2 weekends of really short and easy rides leading up to RAW – just enough to keep the muscle memory alive and a couple intervals for the same purpose, but “short and sweet” will be the objective.

Anyway, back to the ride at hand! Near the top of the steeper section of Mines Road I sent Mike on ahead to the Junction because I wasn’t sure when they closed and I wanted him to be able to get a post-swim meal in (since other than the Junction Cafe there’s nothing on this route in terms of civilization). The middle section of Mines Road is more mellow and some rolling terrain, then as you approach the Junction there are a couple of short climbs and some descents.

Short climb on the stretch of road heading towards Mt. Hamilton

Last climb before Mt. Hamilton

Approaching the top of Mt. Hamilton - the Lick Observatory dome visible up ahead

On the descent there were a lot of bugs in the air since it was approaching dusk. I went through several swarms and it was most unpleasant feeling! To make it worse, a lot of bugs got caught in my helmet, and as I continued to descend I kept feeling them crawl down my forehead and behind my sun glasses towards my eyes – ewwww, what a creepy feeling! It reminded me of the Star Trek movie with the scorpion like creatures that crawled into the character’s skulls! Whenever the road straightened up enough I would try to swat them off my face, but all in all it was a creepy crawly descent!

On the descent down the frontside of Mt. Hamilton

I finally reached the bottom of Mt. Hamilton around 8pm. I’d ridden 66 miles with 6600ft of climbing according to the altimeter on my cyclometer, and my ride time was 5hrs. There wasn’t much heat to be had, but it was still a successful training ride. It was a confidence booster to catch a glimpse of fresh legs, even if it didn’t last for the entire ride. The only downside to the day was the fact that I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs and got a bad sunburn while sitting in the open kayak supporting Mike’s open water swim – ouch!!! I’m now going to have a nice striped tan on my legs. Oh well – the color scheme matches my 2 Rubys – red & white!!

Post kayaking sunburn - color scheme to match my 2 Rubys - red & white!!

I didn’t do a lot of advanced planning – I just knew that I wanted to try and ride for 24hrs sometime in April. Since Mike’s 50 mile run is on April 9th, I knew that weekend I needed to plan a recovery weekend so that I could support him for that, so what better way to have earned a recovery weekend than having done a 24hr ride the weekend before (and a 300km the week before that). Since the weather forecast was also looking pretty good, mid-week I decided that I was going to give it a shot. But instead of starting on Saturday morning and riding until Sunday morning, I decided that starting Friday night would be more valuable training. First, it would mean additional sleep deprivation since it essentially meant being up for 2 days and 1 night versus just 1 day and 1 night. Second, it meant that I could ride during the day on Saturday and do more climbing later in the ride (versus doing the climbing early in the ride and then finishing flat at night) which is good training. Third, since I’d finish Saturday evening, I could try and ride Sunday as well and get even more mileage for the weekend (although I’ll be honest – I didn’t think of this “advantage” until I’d already started the ride, but it did work out nicely that way!).

Friday evening I set out at 7:15pm. I decided to do loops out to the end of Canada Road and back at night. Each loop was just under 60 miles. I hoped to get two and a half of these loops done and head out on my day loop as soon as it was light in the morning. Since we’d had a mini heat wave during the second half of the week it was still fairly warm in the evening, so I didn’t even need to wear knee warmers or arm warmers for the first loop. It was light out for the first half hour or so, but I always feel a bit depressed as the sun gets lower and lower in the sky and it gets dark, so starting out the ride like that was a bit tough mentally. Once it’s completely dark I usually feel a bit better as I get to enjoy the different atmosphere that night riding provides – the different sounds, shadows & shapes, stars, and the glow from various metropolitan areas. The first loop went well, and I was back home by about 11:30pm. I quickly put on my knee warmers, arm warmers, and vest, downed a Mountain Dew for a bit of caffeine/sugar, filled my water bottles, changed my light battery, and headed out the door again. The first half of the second loop went well, but then I started getting really sleepy. Coming back Foothill on the second loop I was drifting off. A couple times a startled deer on the side of the road jolted me awake. At this point I decided that I was going to need to go down for a substantial nap when I got home rather than head out for another partial night loop for safety reasons. Since I was going to be riding alone all day Saturday, I decided that I needed to try and get a little bit of sleep so that I would hopefully be more alert during the day. Also, I’d been using cornstarch as my strategy to avoid chaffing since it had showed promise during my 325 mile ride at Christmas time, but the last few rides I’d used it I’d had problems, and unfortunately I was already experiencing irritation in that area, so I was going to need to switch strategies and go back to chamois cream. So I decided I would quickly shower and then let the skin dry while I napped in hopes that it would mitigate the damage that had been done and allow me to get through the next 15+ hours. I got home from the 2nd loop at 3:45am, and by the time I’d showered and climbed into bed it was 4:05am. I set my alarm for 5:25am figuring that would give me time to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then head out for the day loop just before it started to get light. But then I hit snooze a couple times when my alarm did go off, so I didn’t actually get up till about 5:45am, and I wasn’t all that organized getting ready to go, so by the time I finally headed out it was about 6:40am.

For the day loop I’d planned to head out to the coast via Highway 9, then head up the coast and do some climbing around West Alpine and Tunitas Creek before dropping back towards home. It was overcast as the sun came up and I headed over Mt. Eden and Pierce Road towards Highway 9. My legs felt heavy and sluggish. I guess I had just ridden 119 miles before my extended break, but they’d been fairly flat miles, so I was a bit disheartened that I felt this sluggish. Highway 9 felt tougher than it usually feels, and I started bonking a bit so as I approached the top I was hoping the hot dog vendor would be there so that I could get a soda and/or hot dog, although I knew it was probably way too early in the morning for him to be there. I was right, and he wasn’t there when I got to the summit, so I had to settle for a bag of honey roasted peanuts that I had with me – I downed them quickly and then headed down Highway 9 towards Santa Cruz.

Although I’d driven this road before, I’d never actually ridden it before. It was quite a nice descent – the road surface was pretty good, the turns weren’t too technical, and there wasn’t much traffic. It was still overcast and kind of damp, so I got chilled descending, but it could have been worse. As I approached Boulder Creek I started getting really sleepy again. I stopped in Boulder Creek at a gas station to use a bathroom, but decided to try and make it to Santa Cruz before I stopped for food. I ate some orange Cliff blocks which had some caffeine in them to try and jolt myself awake. The rest of the way into Santa Cruz had a lot more traffic, and the road was a bit sketchier – not much of a shoulder, more debris on the road, etc. As I made it into Santa Cruz finally I was expecting to be able to just turn onto Highway 1, but I hadn’t realized that there was no bike traffic allowed on that stretch of Highway 1, so I had to find my way on surface streets for a bit. I didn’t know where I was going, but figured if I headed in the general direction that I’d eventually find a road that would dump me out on Highway 1. This strategy worked and I got onto Mission which turned into Highway 1. Once on Highway 1 my next objective was to find some food and caffeine. I knew there was a good coffee place along Highway 1 called Coffeetopia, and low and behold there was a Mexican restaurant right next door that had breakfast burritos. So I stopped at La Mission Restaurant and had a chorizo breakfast burrito, then grabbed a cappuccino at Coffeetopia. Both were excellent!!

Then I headed up the coast. It was 34 miles to Pescadero, so I figured it shouldn’t take much more than 2 hours to cover the distance since the ride up the coast was just a lot of rollers but no substantial climbs. What I hadn’t factored in correctly though was the headwind….. It wasn’t too bad as I left Santa Cruz, but not far out of town the wind started to get stronger, and it just got stronger and stronger as I headed further north. On the flats I was lucky to go 11mph, and I couldn’t build up any speed on the rollers, so the climbs were pathetically slow. I tried to just suck it up and deal with it, but it was frustrating nonetheless. The coast line was pretty interesting to watch with all that wind though – Bean Hollow beach looked like a washing machine it was so rough! During this stretch up Highway 1 I got to see the folks who were doing the Santa Cruz 300km brevet – they’d headed up to Half Moon Bay in the morning and were returning down the coast – with a tail wind – I was jealous!!! I recognized Tim Woudenberg early on, then later I saw Sheila Stevens. I stopped and backtracked a bit to chat briefly with Sheila and Tina – anything to break up the monotony of riding into the head wind!!

I finally got to Pescadero about 3 hours after leaving Santa Cruz. I stopped at the gas station there to get a Mountain Dew, and also grabbed a burrito since they make really good burritos there. I ate just over a third of it and then packed the rest for the road. I headed out towards Memorial Park and Haskins Hill. The original plan had been to do Haskins, West Alpine, then drop back down 84 and do Lobitos Creek and Tunitas Creek, but given how late it was in the day, and the fact that I didn’t have my powerful light with me (I just had my small light with me) and I didn’t want to get caught on this side of the hill in the dark, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to stick to that plan, and wasn’t going to fit the Tunitas loop in. I got to West Alpine at about 212 miles into my ride, and I must say that the climb is a lot harder with that many miles on your legs than it is after only 40-60 miles!!! It was a slog to the top, but I made it. Once at the top I headed along Skyline towards 84, and decided I had time to at least drop down the west side of 84 as far as West Old La Honda and come back up that way – it added another short climb and I could get it done and still have time to get home before dark. After doing the West Old La Honda loop I stopped at Skylonda to get a soda and eat some more of my burrito before dropping back down into Woodside.

At this point I knew I wasn’t even going to get 300 miles in before my 24hrs ran out, but I decided that I had to keep going until I’d ridden at least 300 miles. I needed to go home and get my powerful light before finishing up, so I got home around 7:30pm after riding 267 miles. I quickly changed into some dry shorts and a dry shirt (so that I didn’t get too cold as the sun set), put my night reflective gear back on, downed a soda and ate the rest of my burrito, gave Mike instructions on going out and getting some food for me for when I finished, and then headed out to get the last 33 miles done with. I wasn’t as depressed riding into the setting sun this time around -probably because I knew I was almost done. I felt like I pushing hard on this section, but I wasn’t setting any land speed records. I left home at about 7:55pm and got home at 10:15pm.

So all told I’d ridden 301 miles in an elapsed time of 27 hours (ride time of 21:45). My cyclometer reported 15,800 feet of elevation gain, so it certainly wasn’t a totally flat ride. And thankfully I didn’t have any back pain this weekend – a night and day difference from the Davis 300km a week earlier. There were definitely some challenges along the way – mental, emotional, meteorological, physical – but I got through it. Of course thinking about the fact that RAW is almost 3 times the distance and elevation gain that I rode during this ride is a rather intimidating concept – yikes!!

Oh, and to finish up the weekend I went out and rode another 75 miles on Sunday to make it 376 miles for the weekend – my longest training weekend to date if you don’t count weekends when I did 500 mile events. So a pretty solid training weekend. Now I’m definitely ready for my recovery weekend!

Many of these same people who are constantly on the go are then dismayed and shocked when they get injured, sick, feel sluggish, or are constantly tired. I would like to think that we endurance athletes are a relatively smart box of cookies, but when you see this behavior you start to wonder!! I’ve been there and done that though – ran/biked/swam myself into the ground and got injured, exhausted, and unmotivated. I like to think that I’ve learned from those past mistakes though, and have become better at listening to my body. That’s not to say I don’t train any time I’m tired, or that I’m constantly taking full recovery – that’s not it at all. The key is periodization. I train really hard for a block of 3-4 weeks, pushing my body to it’s limits, and then I back off for a week and let my body recover and adapt to that block of training. If you constantly stay in a beat down state though, then your body is too busy trying to “survive”, and it may not adapt such that you see the gains you otherwise would have from the hard training that you did. I’m not an expert in human physiology and alike, and I’m certainly not claiming that we’re all the same and that what works for me will work for everyone. We’re each unique individuals, and it’s a long and intricate process to get to the point where you can listen to your body and understand the subtleties of what it’s trying to tell you and successfully walk that fine line between overtraining and maximizing your training. Some people are just genetic freaks who are incredibly gifted athletically who can do anything and everything and never get injured or tired – but I can’t look at what they’re doing and then try to apply that to myself and expect the same results. I’m not them – I’m me, and I have to do what my body will allow me to do (of course all the while trying to coax it to do just a little bit more than it would really like to do!). I’m a mere mortal, lacking any particular athletic gift apart from perhaps a healthy dose of stubbornness! So I have to train accordingly.

So that brings me to this past week – my first recovery week of 2011 (well apart from the first weekend of the year when I was recovering from my 325 mile botched attempt at a 750 mile ride the week after Christmas – as well as thawing out from an encounter with a blizzard and frigid temperatures in Arizona of all places while visiting the Grand Canyon!). On January 8th I did a 100 mile ride including Mt. Hamilton followed by a hilly 60 mile ride through the Los Altos hills the next day. On January 15th I did a 100 mile ride to the coast with climbs up Old La Honda, Haskins, Stage, Lobitos Creek, and Tunitas, followed by a mellower 70 mile ride the next day. Then on January 22nd I did 112 miles out to the coast with climbs up Kings Mountain, Stage, Haskins, West Alpine, and Stevens Canyon, followed by a mellower 80 mile ride the next day. So that was 3 back to back weekends of 160-190 miles, with quite a bit of quality climbing (considering it’s January – we had a gorgeous spell of weather though!). Plus during the week I was cranking out 5-8 hours on the stationary trainer doing a lot of standing intervals, and I was also doing 2hrs a week at Integrate Performance Fitness doing strength/power training. By the end of the 3rd weekend, I could tell that I needed to back off for a week and let my body recover, so this past week became a recovery week – a couple easy spinning sessions on the stationary trainer, 1 strength/power workout at Integrate, and a relatively flat and easy 80 mile ride on the weekend. Some point to the 80 mile ride and say “Hah! That’s not a recovery ride! You’re saying one thing but doing the opposite!”. Sure, that ride wouldn’t have been a recovery ride for everyone, but what makes it a recovery ride for me is the fact that it had no sustained or steep climbs, I kept the ride at an easy pace not exerting myself for any long stretches, and in the days leading up to the ride I’d been taking it extremely easy. Additionally, given my base fitness right now, a fairly flat 80 mile ride in 4:45 is a relatively easy recovery ride for me. My original plan was to have only ridden 60 miles on Saturday and then done 30-45 miles on Sunday, however the weather forecast had quite a bit of rain on Sunday so I opted to bump up the mileage a bit on Saturday and then only do a very easy and short stationary trainer ride on Sunday.

Coupled with backing off on the duration and intensity of my workouts during my recovery week, I also tried to do other things to aid in recovery – things like doing additional foam rolling and stretching, and getting a deep tissue massage with one of my sponsors – David Ledesma. One of my regularly scheduled morning classes at Integrate Performance Fitness even aligned perfectly with my recovery week in that all we did for the hour was foam rolling and stretching – it was like Al had read my mind! So the end total for my recovery week was less than 8hrs of training, plus lots of stretching and foam rolling, compared to in the range of 20hrs/week the 3 previous weeks. I think it was a successful recovery week – now I’m looking forward to ramping things up again in the coming month and hopefully feeling rested and fresh so that I can get even more gains out of this next block of training!

So if you take anything away from this post, let it be that recovery is just as important if not more so than any training that you do. How much recovery you need is a very personal thing, but learning to listen to your body so that you can find that optimal balance for you is extremely important if you hope to do endurance athletics and not burn out.