Humbled Again
So i’m supposed to be training for the Pikes Peak Ascent. It’s creeping up on me - and I’ve been sick lately. So yesterday I busted out the bike for the first ride of the season. Beautiful day: 65, sunny, no wind. My initial thought was to cruise out east of Boulder for a gentle twenty miler or so (remember, it’s the first ride of the season).
As soon as I emerged from our parking garage - the mountains were in full view. I’m cruising down our frontage road when my addiction for being out of breath becomes readily apparent. I start cycling over to flagstaff mountain. All is well until the first steep incline. Halfway up, my breathing is rather shallow and starting to become painful. You know, the kind of hurt you experience when running in cold weather, as if your longs are frozen or something. The only catch - it was 65 degrees. I turned around. One strike on the pride meter.
I rocked it up ninth and then up baseline to another hill - a bit smaller - and should’ve been no problem. I turn onto Lee Hill road behind another cyclist - he didn’t look like anything special, and he was definitley taking his time getting to our hill. Several times I thought about passing the guy and leaving him in my dust. But I couldn’t get the the thought out of my head that I had just turned around on flagstaff for the first time ever. I stayed back.
On the first incline - he started pulling away - nothing too noticible. But he was chopping away at me. Second incline, the shallow painful breathing returned. And I had to force myself to turn around. Beaten twice in one day. It hurt - but opened my eyes to the long road ahead. Training starts Monday.
Thank God I didn’t pass that guy.
Filed by ryanroth at April 3rd, 2005 under Life