Climbing "The Lung" again

Sunday, 2/21/10

Yesterday wasn’t so bad. I had posted on my Facebook status that I had done the ride and gotten a couple of comments back about my manliness, which had always inspired me to do incredibly dumb things in the past. Getting older was not making me smarter. I figured ‘ride again’ and to hell with the weather.

The day was actually pretty agreeable. It was sunny for the third day in a row and the temperature was checking in at a balmy 42 degrees. I had a little over an hour before dinner with the family, which would be lasagna – something very concentrated in fat calories – my absolute favorite kind. There would be garlic bread and some kind of wonderful dessert, as well. My daughter was home from college, the in-laws were coming and so, well, lots of food.
I cut back some on my dress. No running pants today – only the riding shorts, though I did have my Speedo’s on under the shorts to protect against penal frostbite (wish I’d thought of that yesterday). Anyway, I took off on a course I was determined would not be as hilly as yesterday. I was still sore from that ride - it being the first hard ride since last fall, and I wasn’t looking to prove anything to anyone. Sure.

I headed down into the Chagrin River Valley again, which pretty much means that I had to climb out of it at some point. I had ridden up the steepest hill out of the valley the day before, something affectionately referred to as ‘the Iron Lung’. It’s a very steep hill, three quarters of a mile long, with absolutely no breaks. I could come back up it again today or I could avoid it easily – taking a number of other routes up hills longer, but not nearly as steep or difficult. And yet, there really was no choice - the ‘Lung’ was beckoning. I detoured a couple of miles, finding myself at its base with the goal of making it faster than I had the day before. I wasn’t sure as to ‘why’ as I began the ascent.

I was determined to stay in the saddle for the whole trip up. I do this when training for mountain climbs in the Adirondacks. It strengthens the quads, but why I was doing it now – I don’t have a friggin’ clue. Anyway, I also decided not use my easiest gear for the entire hill as I had the day before. I’d had a ride and should be in better shape, right? This, by the way, is another example of terribly flawed thinking. You need at least a couple of weeks to start really getting the conditioning affects of your training, but I always ignore my own advice when it applies to me. It had taken me 8 minutes to get up it yesterday. Today would be better if I had to puke.

It was. I was a hair under 7 minutes for the climb, but about 2 minutes slower than my younger, studlier days. This is one good reason not to go back to places where you timed yourself as a younger man. Or where you went as ‘in shape’ man. Oh well. I’d given up on the self-respect thing when I’d seen that I’d topped 200 pounds on the scale. My quads were swollen with that great burn feeling that would remain for the rest of the ride, which was another twenty minutes. I struggled home with ten minutes to spare before company arrived - about how much time I need to shower, change, and place myself in front of the kitchen sink so I could make it look like I’d done all of the pre-dinner cleanup. Oh – and have a little extra time to whine about how sore I was.

Discouraged about my performance? Nah. For now – I’m just going to push myself to do something challenging each day. The pounds WILL come off and I will perform better.

Duration: 1:10:00

Training heart rate: 130 beats per minute.

Calories burned during workout: 1,050