I said in a reply to an earlier post that I was going to sit on the couch this weekend and eat bonbons. That didn’t happen.
I went to the gym on Friday to lift (I’m kinda digging on the weightlifting). On Saturday I went on a 3-hour gravel/urban (as urban as Ames gets) ride with me, myself, and I. With temps in the 50s, it was perfect December weather, and it was a good time to think about some things going on at work (which I won’t bore you with).
I was thinking of doing little to nothing on Sunday, when an IORCA post caught my eye. I thought, “I should do that”, so I did. I showed up at Starbucks and introduced myself to Lou. Shortly after that Kim, Jane, and Rick Noyes got there, and were off to Booneville, via gravel. That is, after we cleared the city. Those city folks sure have to do a lot of riding to get to gravel.
The gravel was nice, with my HR around 135. This is what LSD should be. Then we hit the hills. Regular readers will remember that hills are my weak point. I still suck at climbing. I’m working on it (196 lbs this morning), but I still suck at climbing. At one point, when climbing a particularly steep hill, I found my maximum heart rate (it’s 184 for those of you scoring at home). I put it there and kept it there for at least a minute. It hurt. But the alternative was walking, ‘cause I had run out of gears. I wasn’t gonna do that.
We got back to Des Moines, and rode through some areas that I didn’t even know existed. Even Kim commented that he hadn’t ridden in one of the areas before. Lou said his knowledge of urban riding areas was the fault of, “Spending too much time on a bike”.
I chatted with Lou some, and he has become my new inspiration. During last season, I attributed my inability to keep up with, “I’m to old to be fast”, and “I’m to tall/big to be fast”. Lou dispels both of those notions. He’s 46 years old, and is 6’5”. Damn, there goes most of my excuses. I’ve still got, “I’m too fat to be fast”, but that isn’t a real excuse, because it can be fixed. I’m working on it.
For the weekend I got 6 ½ hours on the bike, and 7 ½ total hours. That’s pretty good for a weekend in December.
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2 comments:
Paul, you're right Lou is a total inspiration to me as well. The dude used to weigh over 400lbs at one time and managed to overcome that along with some serious smoking habits. At 46 yrs old he can drop me at will but that only makes me want to ride harder to keep up.
I've been chasing that dude around the streets and trails of this state for nearly three years and I keep getting faster because of it. He is truly an awesome inspiration to our sport. I hope I'm half as strong as he is at 46.
As for you being too fat at 196lbs, well I've got about 25 pounds on you bro. You're training right now will help you shine come June when you're passing guys you thought you'd never catch next season.
WOW! 400 lbs. I would have never guessed that. That makes him even more impressive.
At one point during the ride he asked it we could up the pace. I held on for about 45 seconds. He dropped back and let me catch his wheel. I lasted about a full minute that time.
As I read through various "Tags" on blogs, its interesting to note that many have used cycling as a replacement for other obsessions (smoking, eating, etc.). I'm including myself on that list.
Like my doctor told me at my last check-up, whatever you are doing, keep doing it.
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