Friday, April 4, 2008

Good spins!

Ok, I've noticed that most of my spin posts somehow had a negative sound or described bad conditions or how hard it is to be a mountain biker, so finally I've got the chance to offset this trend.
Since I had this cold and stomach bug, and I hadn't done any proper training since Saturday, I was well recovered by the middle of the week. AND the weather was getting really nice and summery warm. So, when I felt good enough again to do a bit of training I set off in the evening (wohoo, the first evening training session!) towards my local training ground 3Rock via the Kilmashogue hill climb. Man, I was feeling good! The weather was so nice that I only needed to wear one layer of clothing: my short-sleeve jersey and my cycling shorts! (Gotta shave those legs...) Woah, so warm! This is the weather I'd love all year round.

I didn't try for a PB on the 'Shogue in the beginning although I thought I was going fairly fast. However, halfway up (the new route) I felt I was going really well and I increased my power, thinking that maybe I could do a sub-16min climb. Damn, I was feeling good! So, I passed a WORCie on the way up (love that feeling ;)) and when noticed I was only one bend away from the finish I hammered up the last bit as if I was going to win the World Championship - from the corner of my eye I saw my heart rate hitting 180bpm and the time, the time.... 15min 48sec!!! Yay!! I made it! Man, what a great feeling of achievement. For the rest of the spin I felt good, did a lot of singletrack technical riding in view of the technical Djouce race coming up this weekend, and only fell of the bike twice (one time hitting my knee to bleed - ouch!!). But this didn't stop me from enjoying the beautiful evening mountain scenery and serenity that the Wicklow mountains exude in the dawny light and felt just soooo zen..... :)
Sunset pic from my phone camera - it doesn't do the real view justice

On Thursday the weather kept just as good, so I did another technical spin up 3Rock, such peace, such delight, at one point I stopped and all you could hear was the sound of birds and a motorbike in the far distance - can't believe I ever considered selling my mountain bike ;)

No comments :