The hills are alive

Although yesterday, they weren't alive with the sound of music, just the sweet sounds of belabored breathing and regular grunting.

Because of the wicked wind that was blowing in yesterday at somewhere around 20 mph, and because of the seemingly inevitable downpour (which never came), I decided to stick close to home and do hill repeats. I figured out that from the bottom of the Grand Ave hill to the very top was about 200 130 feet. Five laps and about 12 miles later that meant I had climbed 650 feet. I was sure at the time that I had conquered a thousand feet, or right around that amount, but double checking this morning it turns out that it wasn't quite as impressive as I had hoped for.

Either way, I did learn something that surprised me. Normally I ride at a pace that leaves me pretty worn out when I get home. I don't really have much left in my legs when I roll into the driveway. This time though, even though it was hard, and I was definitely winded, my legs felt pretty fresh. I think the alternating hard workout followed by a few minutes of cool down cleared out my legs and kept lactic acid from building up. It's like a pre-built interval workout, and you don't even have to do anything but ride it. Sweet.

Now that I know I can withstand the tedium of riding a 2 mile loop over and over again, I'd be interested to see how I'd do on some bigger hills. I just checked and Ohio Street out to HWY 13 is just shy of 300 feet vertical gain. I'll be sure and post how that goes when the time comes.