The Blackhawk Ride, One Year Later

Yesterday Doug and I rode the long hilly route of the Blackhawk Country Roads ride from Rockton, IL, into southern Wisconsin, 65 miles. This is a beautiful ride, well routed on side roads with almost no traffic. Long stretches of quiet woods, farms, open fields, lovely views. I love hilly rides because of the scenery - but I'm learning to love the hills with my legs, too.

Last year I was training for TOMRV, my first long challenging ride - and we went on this same ride for the conditioning. I was just starting to get the feel of a longer cycling day then. I wasn't used to sitting on a bike for hours at a time, and my body was still quite surprised at being required to continue this kind of exertion for so long. For the last 10 miles of a day of 60 or 70 miles, I would be completely exhausted, desperate to just finish the ride. And this ride, the Blackhawk Ride, has some pretty serious hills. Last year Doug tried to coach me how to ride the hills, to get momentum on the approach, to use the short rollers efficiently, to stand up and pump on a steeper hill. I tried as best I could to follow his instructions, but I was mostly too tired to process much of what he was trying to teach me.

Well, what a difference a year makes. Even though I am not training as deliberately this year, I am a much more efficient rider. My legs have learned a lot about climbing hills. I am starting to learn where it will pay off to invest my energy in speed, and where to just let the hill slow me down, because it will anyway, and relax and take my time. There's a kind of giving in to the hill that makes sense sometimes. I'd like to have my knees last a few more years. I really enjoyed those hills yesterday - liked feeling the changes in my riding skills in those moment-to-moment decisions about how to shift gears, when to stand. I loved the feeling of speed and rhythm on the rollers, the satisfaction of making it to the top of the long slow hills, the reward of the panorama at the top.

I also noticed yesterday how there are levels to tiredness, and I can begin to manage my own experience of the tiredness somewhat. This is something I could never have learned without doing an endurance sport. I was starting to feel tired after the first 15 miles, and that worried me a little. I slowed down a bit, told Doug I was pacing myself for the distance, and really paid attention to where I was investing hard work. I drafted off Doug in one windy stretch and got a little rest. Eventually I realized, though, how little meaning that first level of tiredness really has. If I ride at a decent pace for an hour, I'll start to feel that in my legs, and I experience it as getting tired - but that's not even a quarter of the day's distance. So, as I found yesterday, there are much deeper reserves of strength in my legs, and a really different kind of tiredness comes later. I felt the real tiredness after 45 miles - but instead of being exhausted and desperate to make it to the end, I was just, well, tired.

Tired and happy. The last 10 miles yesterday were still fun.