good ride

a near perfect evening for a bike ride! i wasn't gonna let a tiny cold stop me from enjoying the weather. even though i was run down and had some body aches from the cold, i still made the trip up to pontiac lake after work. to my surprise, there were several of the cycletherapy guys there along with nick and the jode! i had every intention of doing two slow laps...we stopped a couple of times including the top of 2 mile hill. after that, soupy and i took off and found a good rhythm. we turned a pretty darn fast lap for early april. i was just happy to be able to hang w/ soupy tonight! i figured out one reason i've been so slow on the climbs. i wasn't pedaling properly. i wasn't pulling on the up-strokes. i was just basically pushing the pedals up the hills. i can't believe what a difference that made! i felt WAY faster on the climbs tonight. i can't believe how much stronger i felt than i did last week.

soupy had to leave after one lap so i was on my own for the second. i don't ever recall doing a night lap by myself. it's probably not the smartest thing to do but then i again i don't always do the smartest thing. the legs started off a bit stiff but i warmed up quickly and was feeling pretty good. i did the entire lap non-stop which is good because i need to learn to recover on the bike after the climbs. i thought i did fairly well...as soon as i reached the top of the climb, i upshifted and hammered for about 50 feet to get up to speed. that will definitely come in handy especially in a sport level race. after the road crossing i spooked a couple of deer that were about 5 feet off the trail. pretty cool seeing their eyes glow under the luminescence of my hid. i finished the lap without taking any shortcuts and felt very strong on the last climb. well, at least i feel a little better about the yankee race now.