Andy Pruitt and Coach Brian both agree that even though my knee is acting up, I should still train. I have to keep my intensity in check and supplement my rides with tons of stretching, but I've been getting out. Today I was slated to do a 1:30 recovery ride, staying in heart rate zones 1 and 2, which for me is a max heart rate of 155. I spent Monday and Tuesday riding in 30mph plus wind and was over it. Today I decided hide from the wind in the protection of the foothills. The ambient temperature would be colder, but without the windchill it would feel warmer. I would have to climb, but if I kept it super mellow I could stay mostly in my assigned zones.
I headed out on the Superfly from North Boulder to do a Boulder Canyon, 4 Mile Canyon, Poor Man Rd, Sunshine Canyon loop back to town. It was only about 1800 feet of climbing and mostly gradual except for short parts of Poor Man. I was able to keep my heart rate down by soft pedaling most of the time. By half way up 4 Mile Canyon I was hovering around zone 2.5 and in a good grove jamming to some tunes. Then out of nowhere a gaper on a road bike attacked me. He was out of his saddle and sprinting, staring indignantly at me as he passed. After sizing him up I could tell I could easily take him out and after the way he looked at me thought he deserved it too. I mustered every bit of maturity, professionalism, and discipline I could to stick to the plan. As he pulled away ahead of me I recited under my breath "maintain, maintain... stick to the plan" and soon was happily back in my grove.
Once I was on the steeper sections of Poor Man I had to ride comically slow to keep my heart rate down. It was cold and light snow was falling. I thought about how grateful (and tough - Ha!) I was to be out on a day like today. After an eternity of slow motion climbing I neared the top and caught a glimpse of my former attacker. He was completely cracked and walking his bike up the steep incline. Like a shark in bloody waters my first instinct was to attack, but I maintained my discipline and continued to slowly turn the cranks over. The great irony of this was that when I did eventually pass him (in super slow motion) it was even more belittling than normal.
I resisted rubbing it in, instead smiling and uttering a "Good Day Mate" as I toodled by. I don't think he ever suspected the firestorm of competitive energy I was restraining from unleashing on him. Like most "bike path wars", undertaken by over-competitive, under trained "bike-pathaletes", it would have served no purpose. I find it interesting that the more my knee hurts the more driven I become (you could draw an unflattering parallel to George Bush here, but I digress). When the time is right I'll release the firestorm, until then I'm happy to toodle along and smile!
Poor Man Recovery Ride 1:32, 17.8 Miles, 1879 Feet of Climbing
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