Today while I was on my recovery ride I had a few thoughts that came to mind and I thought I would share them with you.

I felt remarkably well considering I just did an Everest on Saturday (2 days ago).  The ride I was on I usually do a few surges and a sprint here and there.  But today was all about taking care of my body and doing what I was supposed to do… an active recovery ride.  I did a pretty good job at it as I kept my heart rate down as well as my power.  I let the group ride ahead and I met them at each regroup.  No fragile ego today I just put on my recovery mindset.

You can see from the graphs below how I kept my power and heart rate low during the ride.  I rode 58% of the ride below 139 watts and 49% of the time in a heart zone of 120-145  bpm.  Very comfortable and able to hold a conversation without heavy breathing.

 

And now onto my musings —

The first thought — was using the analogy of a quiet unassuming fellow in a bar getting harassed by some inebriated bullies.  The quiet fellow is just minding is own business having his Long Island Ice Tea – that should tell you right there he’s a little different.  When is the last time you had a Long Island Ice Tea?  Better yet when was the last time you had two Long Island Ice Teas?  Yep! You can’t remember because those things are heavyweight drinks and they will put you down if you are not careful.  They have several liqueurs in them and very little mixer.  Back to the quiet and unassuming fellow he tells the bullies he doesn’t want any trouble and that he’ll buy them all a drink if they will just go away.  What we don’t know about the quiet unassuming fellow is that he’s some super killer Ninja dude with all these secret ways to kill you with one punch and he can wipe the floor with these guys.  So the analogy is the bullies are the peloton, the quiet unassuming guy is you on a recovery ride.  You know you can kick ass and be riding hard with the big guns today BUT you need to do the right thing and let them ride and you need to ignore the taunts in the form of surges from the group.  The fellow buying the drinks to the bullies that’s you letting the big guns win the sprint today because you don’t challenge it.

So next time your are on an active recovery ride be the Ninja dude/chic and use the discipline to keep your efforts in check even though you know you feel good and could kick some serious arse!

 

The other thought was in reference to my latest Everest.  I have always wanted to do an Everest REV Style where you attain 29,029 feet or 8,848 meters without doing a single repeat.  Living in San Diego County there are plenty of climbs to make that work.  So when I got back to the shop I created the REV Epic Everest Ride.

It combines the iconic climbs of San Diego into one ride.  It is 276 miles and 30,000 feet of climbing.  I went over the 29,029 in case Ride With GPS overinflated the elevation and we would end up short.  Starting from my shop in San Marcos the climbs are as follows:

San Elijo Rd

Old Castle

Palomar South Grade

Mesa Grande

Climb to Julian

Mount Laguna

Cuyamaca Peak

North Peak

Montezuma Grade

Palomar East Grade

Cole Grade

Double Peak aka Mt Vargas

This would be one monster ride and so epic I don’t even know if I can get anyone crazy enough to ride it with me.  Here is the ride link on Ride With GPS website.  PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD TO YOUR GPS DEVICE it has not been scrubbed to ensure every turn is correct or that every road is bike friendly.  Two climbs in particular I have not ridden myself — yet.  They are Cuyamaca Peak and North Peak.  I plan on doing a recce of those two climbs soon.  Too many activities planned these next few weekends.

 

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