Not Quite a Saturday Century

The alarm woke me up at 5:30 am and I was out of the house by 6:00 am on my way to Hagg Lake. My coach designed a training ride for me - "I honestly think you'll be doing yourself a favor doing the Hagg Lake Torture ride." The plan was to ride around the lake 11 times, using three different levels of excursion - easy or below my event pace, at my event pace and above my event pace. The idea is to "...move efficiently from at pace to above pace, to stimulate an adaptive response." It sounded like fun.

But, we did not take into account the weather. It was raining as I drove to the Lake. I heard on the radio that it had already rained 1/2 inch since midnight and the storm was not expected to fully hit until sometime during my ride. Fun.

After paying my $5.00 entry fee, I parked the van at Boat Ramp C and listen to the rain hitting the roof of the van as I got ready for the ride. I mixed up my liquid food and attached the computers to the bike. Oh yeah, I put on the rain gear that I brought. Fun.

I started my first lap at 7:40 am in the rain. But to be honest, it was not that bad. True, my fingers we cold, in fact very cold. But I knew they would warm up eventually. Fun.

The road around Hagg Lake is not flat. I was either climbing or descending for each ten mile loop. Only one short hill was steep but none were very long. The descends were short and went quickly. The plan was to do an easy loop, a medium loop and then a hard loop. I was allowed to take breaks only after a hard loop. Fun.

Even though it hard rained the entire time, the series of laps went well. I met the time goal set by my coach, and picked up the pace on the second lap and again met my time goal. On the third lap I worked hard and came very close to the time goal. By then, I was ready for a break. I took refuge in the van and watched the rain through the windshield. Fun.

After a short break, I head out for the next series of four loops. For the first time, I saw other cyclists - two women who going the opposite direction. The first time I saw them, they were separated by 100 yards or so. They were together the second time I saw them, and on my third encounter, one was riding alone. She called out to me and since I was on an "easy" lap the turned around and joined her for a short time. Her riding partner was suffering from the weather - her hands were very painful from the cold. They were calling it quits for the day. I continued on, riding in the rain. Fun.

After four more loops around the lake, I took a longer break. I ate a turkey wrap, I should say I inhaled a turkey wrap and a bottled smoothie. Looking out of the windshield, I saw that both the wind and the rain had increased. I was tired and did not want to go back out in the weather, but I knew that if I wanted to accomplish my goals, I must venture out once more and suffer in the rain. Fun.

This time, my hands were very cold, almost too painful to bear. But, I just peddled harder knowing that they would warm up. Also, my legs were much more tired. I found it difficult to ride at the same pace as I had before. I was definitely slowing down. Fun.

On my second loop, I saw a runner who I had seen before. A quick mental calculation told me that he was on his second loop around the lake. This would mean a twenty mile training run in the rain! I slowed as asked "How many times are you running around this lake?" He smiled and said two. I congratulated him and pick up speed to continue my "hard" loop. Just fifty yards up the road, I flatted. I pulled over and got off the bike. I was on top of the dam and it was cold, wet and windy. By then, the runner came by and I yelled out "At least your shoes don't flat!" Laughing, he passed my by. I turned back to the bike and the thought of what it would do to my cold hands to fix the flat was intimating. So, at 88.5 miles, I called it a day and a nice man with a pickup truck took me back to my van. I thanked him and all he could say was "Nine times around the lake in this weather!" Yes, I suppose it was fun.

Shivering, I changed out of the wet clothes in the van. My fingers did not want to move and it was very difficult taking off my booties, cycling shoes and socks. Finally, once I got some dry clothes on, I began to warm up.

I finished the day with 88.5 miles. My average was 14.7 mph. I do not know what the elevation gain was as my HAC4 malfunctioned. None the less, here is the graph from my HAC4. The markers indicate each lap.

While I did not finish the intended ride, I do feel that it was a good ride. It rained the entire time and to be honest, I was miserable the majority of the time. But I got in some good miles and this should help me accomplish my goals. It better.

Links:
Hagg Lake Park
Elevation Graph
HAC4 Output
Google Maps View

Posted 9:11 AM by John Henry