1 post tagged “la bajada”
Since my mud-mania ride a few eeks ago, I've retreated entirely to the roads. Got my Redline Conquest Team CX Bike set-up with the PowerTap and road tires. That way, I can see real-time, how much I suck! And then, I can download and study just how much I indeed, suck. The hammer crew of four - Chandler (the Captain), Dave (Silly Strong), Tim (aka Dr. Tim), and of course - me (Big G). The plan was to get in 4 hours of 'work'. When I say work, in the context of these guys - it means WORK! 1 minute FTP + 10% pulls for 4 hours. No shit. The reason this is hard for me now-a-days, is that all three of these guys can ride circles around me what with my lower fitness and higher weight, but dammit! I try. We need to carefully plot whos where in the rotation, as the worst thing that can happen is Dave pulls through after I've done my 1 minute. Why? Because sitting in with him on the front, I'm usually 30-50 watts OVER my intended wattage for when I'm pulling! Yow.
Chandler is just as strong - but a little nicer out there, so I try and get on his wheel as I can survive there sometimes...
I have been insisting that after the 2.5 hour mark - when I start coming unglued, that they should adjust the rotation to a 3-man one, and let me drop off. The last 2 weekends they've been too-kind and waited for me, or let me just sit on and suck wheel while they all fight the wind, cold, and fatigue.
This past Sunday, the route plan was a good one: Las Campanas, Prison Loop partial, La Bajada down to Cochiti, then east to the Galisteo Dam. THEN turnaround and climb right back up La Bajada and into town via the Prison Loop route and 599 and Las Campanas. Pain guaranteed! I did fine to the dam, came off on the 10-12 minute climb back up La Bajada, then was struggling on my pulls. For the 3rd time, I said "go, I'm cooked", but they kept adjusting for me. When we turned off the I-25 frontage road heading across Bonanza Creek Rd., I popped and rode solo for a while. Once again, the fellas were waiting at the turn onto Rte. 14, and insisted I should not try and pull, but sit in and hang on. This was very fortunate, as the cross/head wind was strong. And it seemed to be getting colder. Eh. As we approached the next turn - onto the 599 frontage rd., we made a quick pit stop, where I inhaled a Starbucks Vanilla Frappacino and a PayDay . Tim clucked at my 'feed', but I know my stomach, and have some good experience with endurance riding. As we rolled on our way, Tim and I quickly decided we'd skip the Las Campanas loop on this last leg, and head right for home. As Dave and Chandler turned off, it was like Tim and I were being paced by some little old ladies with walkers! I felt OK at easy tempo, but Tim was cramping like mad. Finally, I got to help him, and pulled an easy pace back up to Buckman Rd.
130k door-to-door, right at 4 hours. Just over 3K kj - so it was in fact a hell of a workout.
Note to self: Sushi is an excellent recovery food!
