Training Complete

This past Saturday I went on my last training ride and I'll just say, I wish it went a bit better.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that great either.   Here's how it went down.  This past Friday, Kim's parents treated the whole family to a weekend away in Harrison Hot Springs.  So being out in the Agassiz area, and this being where we ride on Day 2, I figured it would be good to go for a ride and and once again familiarize myself with the route.  Now you may not know, but in the two previous years that I have done GearUp, Day 2 has always been a horrible day.  Two years ago, when I did the Weekend Challenge, and with that being my first year of cycling, I did not train enough and just had a horrible time of it.  Then last year, while staying in Chilliwack our first night, my ulcer flared up and I barely made it out of Hope on Day 2 before almost fainting off my bike.  So on Saturday I wanted to get out and break the curse of riding from Agassiz to Hope.  Well, it didn't really happen.

I started out under very dark skies but it thankfully stayed dry the whole 81km's.  Here is the thing though, it took about 40km's for my legs to start cooperating with me, which is coincidentally the distance from Harrison to Hope.  I don't really know what it was, if I was over tired, or if it was just in my head...or if that section of highway really is cursed for me, but my legs just did not want to go.  My goal for the ride was to make it at least to Hope which I did force myself to do with the help of a tailwind.   After pulling into the town centre though those hot springs back at the hotel where starting to sound mighty nice.  So I turned around and mentally began preparing myself for the 40km ride back to the hotel in a headwind the whole way (this mental preparation usually involves berating myself for having ridden so far in the luxury of a tailwind).   But the strangest thing happened, as soon as I hit that headwind my legs all of sudden came to life and the ride back went quite well.  So here is what I am thinking...it is only the eastbound direction of HWY 7 that is cursed but going west is just fine :)  How this will help me next Sunday I have no clue...I guess I'll just have to suffer through it again.  Oh, and you will also notice that my Garmin computer stopped recording after only 1.4km...typical.  

Anyway, this week is mostly a rest week.  I will go for maybe two short rides to keep my legs into it but for the most part will just be focusing on getting enough rest and getting the right nutrition in my body...can anyone say Pasta!!!