If you read posting on this sight you know that I am keen on health and fitness. Everyday I do some form, often multiple forms, of exercise. For example, aside from archery practice today, I stretched, ran, and did a time-trial on a bicycle. It’s that time-trial that flopped.
Now, I did get through the course I’d planned. The idea was to break a prior personal best on the 11.7-mile course. No, 11.7 miles isn’t a long ride. It is the course that makes it tough.
For the first 3.6 miles the ride is all uphill. Then, it levels, dips a little, and climbs some more. The backside has a steep short downhill, then a gradual climb for the next several miles. The final 2 miles intersects with the start of the course. It is hard and I’ve been trying to break 30-minutes on the ride.
The plan was to use a triathlon bike. On an easier try the day before I’d done the course in 32 minutes using a tri-bike. There was, along with the climbing, a heavy wind. Usually, I’m on a road bike, the tri-bike using a tucked position helped in the wind. Without much effort I’d come close to the 30-minute time.
When I picked up that Cannondale Slice tri-bike today the rear tire was flat. Perfect. I grabbed a road bike and planned to go for it anyway.
Let me say, I’m no meteorologist, but it seems unlikely that there can be a headwind at every turn and in every direction. Yet, today it happened. As hard as I pushed the wind pushed harder.
At 8 miles I thought there’d be a chance. I thought I’d get out of the headwind and have a tailwind. I was wrong. I didn’t get that sub-thirty minutes.