After months of long miles I’ve decided I need to buckle down and start working on some intensity. I’d hoped that I’d be able to squeeze a couple more races into the season up to this point, but travel for work has really limited the number of available weekends. So now July lays before me like an open canvas (though like everything else, it too will pass too quickly). I’m not traveling again until after the 101 and I have no major rides planned so I can focus on getting my high end up and hitting a few races in preparation.
Friday, Sophie and I went out to Rothrock for a quick hour and a half of spinning intervals. Up Longberger for a warm-up and then left up North Meadows Road in short bursts, spinning up as fast as I could and holding it for as long as I could. Across the top I’d planned to descend Bear Gap Rd, but was tempted by Wildcat. Technical descents are not my strong suit and I’ve probably only ridden Wildcat 3 times before. So I chalked this up to technical training and headed down. I made it nearly the whole way down, but chickened out on one of the rock drops down at the lower rock garden and went over the bike. After picking myself back up I looked at the offending rock and realized that the crash was all mental, it wasn’t that big, it was just the field of rocks looming ahead of me that made me hesitate. Next time! Then up Laruel Run Rd at speed and back down to 3 bridges and home. Quick, effective, tiring. Hopefully a few more of those will help put the snap back in the legs.
Saturdays menu was continually changing: mountain bikes, road bikes, Troxelville, the 101 course. I couldn’t get much commitment out of anyone through Friday night. As I was going to bed I got a final text calling for a 7 AM assault on Black Mo with Gigantor and the boys which would satisfy the need for a hard effort and get me back home relatively early. At 6:45 I gave Strauber the wake up call and headed over to Jacob’s for the rollout. Chipper had already bellied up to the kitchen coffee bar and I poured a cup as well to wait for Strauber and Steve. At nearly 7:30 I gave Steve a call to see why he’d not made it the 150 feet from his bedroom to Jacob’s kitchen only to find that he was still asleep and claiming an alarm clock malfunction. Strauber showed up and we all settled into our coffees for Steve to run the morning gauntlet.
We finally hit the road just before 8 and headed for the Magic Mo loop clockwise. I moved to the lead on the climb up Julian. Strauber rolled up alongside me about halfway up and started lifting the pace. I took the bait and we pushed it side by side up the climb, dropping the boys behind us. From Julian we headed up the back way to Moshanon which gave us a couple of extra small wall climbs on the way up to the top. Strauber and I pushed it on each climb. I could usually hold the lead to the top but couldn’t respond when launched the final sprint. We all regrouped across the top through Moshanon keeping the pace through the rollers high. Through the next smaller climbs, Strauber dug in to push it every time the road turned up, relying on some dark motivation that trumped all of our fitness. We dropped back into Bellefonte close to 11 and decided to head up Purdue Mountain to finish off the ride. Strauber and I tried to hold the lead in the climb, but Jacod and Chipper had more in the tank and drove the pace early with the two of us hanging on their wheels. When Chip pulled off Jacob dropped the hammer and nearly lost us. I pulled myself together and came to the front long enough to lead Strauber out for the final pitch but Jacob was able to come around and answer Strauber’s last attack.
We rolled back into town at noon and savored our victory lap down College after a hard effort and a cold hoppy beer to take off the edge from the building heat of the day.
