chattanooga training has begun.

hill repeats, and lots of them. it has been a week since the peachtree city international triathlon and it did feel great to get back out there, although i did drag my feet this morning before heading out the door.  i have a road called woodland brook. it is chock full of hills - peaks and valleys galore which make for some great hill repeats. chattanooga is a very hilly course, and a race qualifier for the nationals race to occur in september.  so being that i did not do many hill repeats in the bitter cold this winter, it is time to get these legs into gear and ready for strong climbing. my two focuses for the next race are to have a faster bike - ideally 1:15; and a better faster, and stronger brick.  to accomplish this, i will be doing bike intervals/hill repeats 1xweekly, & distance 1xweekly,  run interval 1xweekly & distance 1xweekly. my thoughts are that  by strengthening  my bike, it may help me to have an 'easier' brick on my legs. i will also be doing bricks 2xweekly after the intervals, and the long bike ride.

the ride this morning was better than expected. my legs did remember how to climb - until i looked down a road off my course to the right and saw and unbelievable hill.  i figured why not.  i turned right, and began to work the hill, and essentially almost fell off the bike as it began to come to a halt.  the hill peaked unexpectedly at a strange spotand the gearing just was not switching quickly enough - but i did not fall and made it up. after tough climbs, my legs slow down dramatically upon reaching the top, and attention needs to be focused on getting the cadence up ASAP.  as i moved over the top of the climb - i suddenly saw a dramatic descent that wrapped around and around and around. i realized that unless i can get out of this neighborhood, i was going to be climbing back up the hill i am now flying down.  it kept going, and there was no good place to turn around. finally i found a quasi flat area and turned around to bring myself back up that hill.

i have truely never climed a hill of this intensity before.  not only was the hill steep, it kept building as you ascended, wrapping around  and up. i had to stay out of the saddle the entire time, and had it in the lowest granny gear. barely moving.  as cars passed me  you would hear their engines down gearing and whining as they ascended. never  before had i questioned being able to make it up a hill - going so slowly i was not sure if i was going to remain vertical. lungs whistling, stomach nauseous but i made it.  and off to do some more climbing on the main road, woodland brook.

 i knew i would need to do that climb again - a second set. that hill is now dedicated as my hill to conquer, my hill to measure strength building. that is the hill to beat, over all hills.   as i continued back down, and then up woodland brook again, i saw the turn approaching where 'the hill' was, and i turned and conquered it again, not any easier, lungs still whistling, stomach flipping.... but got it done. my new favorite hill.

what does not kill you makes you stronger.

finished up with what was going to be a 10 minute brick, but then decided to add a few hill repeats, so did about 20 minutes.  same motto as above.

lets go chattanooga!  july 11th.