Saturday Ride Thoughts...

Notes from the ride today...

~Last night Patrick and I were texting to confirm start time for this morning. I mentioned that the weather forecast was calling for rain this weekend. He replied that he would bring his rain jacket.

~I woke up a couple times in the middle of the night and was feeling rather relieved to not be listening to rain pelting our windows. Maybe Guy Hagi was wrong and it would be dry after all? Patrick showed up a few minutes before we were set to start and the rain came pouring down as if on cue.

~We waited like 5' and then just rolled out. I kind of thought maybe we wouldn't be able to do the planned intervals b/c it just didn't seem too smart to risk going hard on wet roads, but we were pleasantly surprised with some dry roads not too long into the ride. Gotta love that about Hawaii. Don't like the weather? Wait a  few minutes and it'll change!

~That's the other thing about expecting the worst.... then when it's not as bad as you thought it would be, you're happy!

~Physically I felt like crap on the first interval and actually had concerns that I might get dropped today. It just felt really hard but my power was not any higher than it was supposed to be which left my head filled with thoughts about how I must still be carrying some fatigue from that long run on Thursday... and then the fact that I totally depleted myself in the pool yesterday probably didn't help. Excuses excuses. I sucked it up and did not get dropped. I will admit though that when I glanced at my watch and saw we were only 3' into that first interval, I was worried.

~The second one felt really hard too. It took a ton of focus and concentration and I was just thinking of nothing other than willing my legs to pedal and staring at Patrick's wheel when all of a sudden he was yelling something like head's up! (Honestly I can't even remember what he said I was so focused on pedaling but it got my attention.) And I looked up to see a car in front of us basically just stopping in the middle of the road. WTF??! I'm guessing the driver was trying to look at the surf (there was a surfboard in his car and his window was down) and didn't realize how fast we were going and that he was indeed blocking us... luckily we were able to sit up and brake and swerve and stay upright but yikes. That was a close call. Take note: It can be dangerous riding next to surf spots on the North Shore in the winter.

~I started feeling better on the third one. I sort of assumed my power would be lower b/c it did not feel ridiculously hard like the first two did but indeed power was the same... so apparently it just takes me like 90' to warm up these days.

~Guy Hagi was indeed right when he said that "The atmosphere was juicy" today... Rain came dumping down again just as we were getting started on the final interval. Patrick is a bad ass though and just barreled right through it. I think the fact that we were just nailing this workout was motivation to hit the last one too and I totally remember thinking that there was no way I would be riding that hard in those conditions if I was not just determined to not get dropped. If Patrick was willing to ride hard in that crap, so was I. I love peer pressure! And I am not making this up- I was sitting right on his wheel and my mouth was wide open as I just gasping for air trying to hang on and all that water spraying off his back wheel was hitting me right in the mouth face and it did not even phase me. Pedal on. Don't get dropped. That's all I was thinking about.

~After the hard parts were over were cruising home and talking a bit about what it takes to not get dropped. Of course there is a physical element to it but once you get to a certain level I think a lot of that is in our heads. What do you believe? Do you believe you can hang on? Then you'll hang on. Or do you think you're way out of your league so you'll let that wheel ahead of you go? I will tell you that physically I was on no state to ride like I did today but mentally I was there and that's what it took. Now if I could just hone that skill while I'm running... Need to keep working on that one!