Seventeen weeks to the slowest bike race I'll ever compete in...

This weekend is seventeen weeks from the slowest bike race I'll even compete in, or so I'm told. That race is the Mt Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. This weekend also marked the opening weekend of the GearWorks Saturday morning intermediate rides. I figured that this will be a great opportunity to ride with others who were at my skill level. In addition to that I am looking for a regular group ride beyond my regular individual riding. Little did I know that these folks are leaps and bounds above me with respect to their riding ability.

Like any other ride, this ride started out looking for the first road that had the word 'hill' in it. It turns out New England roads tend to include that word when it goes up the side of a hill. Who knew? On each of these hill roads, I found myself being dropped like Third Period French at the start of each climb. Sure the first hill I hung in there half way up the hill before being dropped. I didn't fair so well on each of the following two hills.

It was at this point that my morale was dropping rapidly. I am thinking "what have I gotten myself into here?". And it is not because of this ride, I will certainly be back for more. The real question revolves around the 7.2 mile ride I have entered into that is a mere seventeen weeks away with an average grade of 11.5% rise. If I can't hang with these folks, how am I supposed to make it up Mt Washington?

Today, after my weekend chores were settled, I decided to man up and head back out on the bike for some redemption. The destination was naturally the hills of Harvard and roads like Snake Hill, Pinnacle, Prospect Hill, Vaughn Hill, West Bare Hill, PartridgeHill and Stow Rds. The goal was to beat myself up by going up the steepest roads in Harvard. The first two I struggled up each. As I went up each of the following hills I found myself going up them with more and more confidence even though my thighs were burning from two days of hill climbing.

By the time I reached home, my confidence in my eventual ability to tackle Mt Washington in August rose to being at least doable. What makes me think that I will be able to climb Mt Washington after these two days of distinctly different results? The first ride I was trying to stay with the group. The second ride I stayed within my ability and maintained a good cadence without blowing up at the beginning of the climb. I even found myself up shifting and riding out of the saddle to give my legs a bit of a break while equally maintaining my speed just as you are supposed to do. I had only read about doing this without actually accomplishing this feat until today. Again this only aided in boosting my confidence.

Seventeen weeks from this weekend I'll be in the slowest race I'll ever compete in. Until today, I had been working on what I had thought was three key items to prepare for: equipment setup, reducing my weight as much as possible and improving my physical climbing ability. I now know that I have to work on the fourth and most important item and that is my mental state during this race. I tend to try to stay up with the group that I am with. My goal in the next seventeen weeks is to learn where my boundaries are and stay within them as much as possible.

You'll still find me going out to join the weekend riders at GearWorks as much as I can. The coming weeks and months. This can only help me to be a stronger rider...

Only seventeen weeks to go.  Game on.