Hill Repeats...

My FAVORITE!

Today's training started at 8:30am in the pool. Matty and I did 5000 meters in about 90 minutes. The main set was 5x400 of race specific stuff...we made them all different so time passed very quickly.

After a cold morning session in the pool, nothing feels better than going straight to a local coffee house and getting a scone and hot cocoa. We visited the Uptown Black Horse and I was very impressed with the atmosphere, but unimpressed with their cocoa (yeah, yeah, I know, coffee shops make coffee...but how hard is a hot cocoa!?!).

After lounging and eating some lunch, we rolled out of the house around 1:30pm and pedaled to See Canyon for some hill repeats. The warm-up route was not without drama...no more than five minutes into the ride a construction pick-up truck drove by and at that exact second, a big piece of thin plastic flew out of the back. It was like the stuff painters lay on the floor of a house to keep from making a mess. This particular piece was about 14 feet wide and 7 feet tall...and it was whipping through the air right towards us (and when I say 'us', I mean Matt riding into the head-wind and me tucked in close behind). I could tell that it was going to hit dead-center into Matt's face, torso, and arms (which it did...with seven feet of plastic hanging off both sides of his body) and my only concern was not slamming into the back of him at full speed. I managed to slam on my brakes, veer into the grass/dirt, and stay upright...all while watching Matt because I was so afraid this thing was going to just wipe him out completely, right in front of my eyes!

Of course I underestimated both of our bike-handling skills because we emerged from the plastic wrap unscathed and laughing hysterically! We continued on our way to the BIG hill like nothing had happened (although, I'm pretty sure my body was pumping adrenaline on overdrive). By the time we turned onto See Canyon road, I was determined to prove Matt wrong because he said I wasn't going to have a good time. So...I LOVED it! I thoroughly enjoyed every painful, grueling, and muscle-aching second of the 3 1/2 hill repeats that I was able to finish during Matt's 5 repeats (all under his previous hill-climbing-record, I might add!). I'm pretty sure that my little lower back muscles that were put to the test today are not going to be happy with me tomorrow morning...they don't get used very much on my normal riding routes in Florida:).

So here are the shots of the day...Matty starting the climb, Matty passing me up the climb, and Matty leaving me in the dust on the climb...enjoy!