Apparently I'm "pretty strong". NO WAY!
As many of you know, I have had health problems that have kept me from riding very fast or far. I generally ride somewhere between 30-60 minutes during the week at 130 heart rate or lower, always as flat as possible and have built up to 28 miles as my longest once a week ride, which I haven't even done in a while.
Every time I do more than one ride above 130 heart rate, my fatigue and dizziness symptoms return. (I have adrenal fatigue issues and several other things that cause fatigue. I'm seeing a naturopathic doctor.) I had an epiphany recently, though. What if I only did one "hardish" ride a week? And then give my body plenty of time to recover before I do it again, riding easy in between? It's when I do it more than once back to back that it seems to cause problems.
So that's my newest thing. I did a pretty short but pretty hard ride a week ago and today decided to try the route our club does on Saturdays to see how I'd do. If I recover fine, I plan to do it WITH the club, which will be epic. I've been dying to ride with the club again for a year and a half.
This is the "short" route they do of 22 miles. It has three climbs, none of which are too killer compared to the long route, which I used to do. However, I haven't been doing ANY climbing for the most part, so even the 1.5 mile climb of about 5% on Benson was a big deal for me.
I rode with my husband today, who pulled most of the time. It was great fun going "fast" on the flats and "super fast" on the descents, my specialty. ;) When that Benson climb came near the end of the ride I was a bit nervous, as I'm used to doing it earlier in the ride (I started at a different point than usual since we recently moved the opposite end of the route.) Anyway, I did it okay. I was hurting for sure, but got in my rhythm and pushed myself. I knew it was slow compared to my old pace, but felt good for my first real climb in over a year.
As I neared the top my stomach actually started to churn, I hit my lap button, started coasting and recovering. I was breathing very hard and a guy cyclist comes along side me and says, "You're pretty strong." Ummm. Excuse me? I had to have him repeat it because I thought surely I didn't hear him correctly. He said it again and I told him that was very kind of him. I looked up my fastest time on that climb (cause I'm a stat monster) and found I did it 3 minutes slower today. If only that guy could have seen me in my glory days. :rolleyes:
But he certainly made my day. Wow. Climbing has never been my strong suit, so to hear that I'm strong when I'm not even close to as strong as I used to be, is a lovely thing to hear indeed. :)
