What goes up must come down!

This is a day late, sorry! Did this workout Thursday the 28th.

Decided to try a bit of a hill workout during the week this week, and I have to admit the wind could have been a bit more cooperative. I headed out eastwards on 96, and I knew the wind was going to be tough. In general, I was able to average 12-15mph even into the wind, but there were definitely some times the wind was trying to knock me over!

I got to Hwy 3 and saw the overpass that would be the best I could hope for a hill in my area. After the light, I built my momentum and started climbing. I was doing all right, downshifted, and felt the burn in my quads as I neared the crest of the hill. And then the wind just SLAMMED into me. My bike wobbled a bit with the strength of the wind, but I managed to keep control of the bike. I pedaled harder, barely going ~8mph as I finished the climb to the top of the hill, and then tried to enjoy the coast down the hill. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong there wasn't much to enjoy; I barely got to 15mph on the downhill (on Sunday John and I were going well over 20mph down the hill). Nonetheless, I used the momentum as best I could, then got over into the left lane to turn around.

And as soon as I started heading west, It was as if the wind didn't exist. I pedaled easy, building up speed and momentum as I approached the hill again. Needless to say, it was MUCH easier to get up the hill in the westward direction! =) I climbed the hill, able to maintain a slightly higher speed in this direction, and then coasted back down to the light at Hwy 3 to turn around again.

I did the hill a total of 5 times in each direction; it was interesting to see the traffic slowly increase over the time I was biking. As I got further into my ride, I tried to work myself harder on the hills; do one less downshift, so stay in a slightly higher gear while climbing the hill, to try to build some good climbing quad muscles. I'm sure this pathetic little overpass "hill" is nothing compared to what I'll face on the ride to Austin, but at least it's better than nothing!

I'm going to go check out the MS150 Training Class at the YMCA tomorrow; supposedly it's a "red" level class, which is the toughest/most intense. But I figure it would be a good thing to do; I might try the Bike Barn ride tomorrow instead, but I think at this point it's kinda late to try to get up early enough for that. We'll see what the morning holds. =)

Coming up Sunday: Ride to the Rescue in Manvel, my first true bike "race!" I'll let you know how it turns out!