climbing ad nauseum

there's always a moment early in my ride when i know what i'm going to be able to do. usually it comes some time in the first mile or two. some times i know it from pedal stroke one. today, it took from home to kiser manufacturing and what i knew when i passed the wind-whipped flag at the plant was that i was going to have a fast day.

with that realization i increased my cadence and effort to a time trial frenzy. i wanted to do my best impression, which is to say a pretty poor imitation, of a cancellara race against the clock. "spin it to win it," they say. so i spun...fast!

i was booking it down the highway, rolling up and over hills like they were nothing until i hit nine-mile hill. at the bottom of it, i felt fine. as i started to climb, i dug deep into my reserves knowing i'd be turning around at the top and bombing back down this same slope with less effort. i dug too deep. about three quarters of the way up the steepest section, i suddenly felt awful. i thought i was going to puke. i know that feeling from recent running workouts, so i backed off the accelerator. i didn't have any choice really. it was slow down or fall off the bike.

i somehow stayed upright and made it to the top and my turn around. i rolled back down the hill at a speed no where near the top speed i had imagined earlier. i had nothing in the tank. i climbed up black dog hill on the other side of the valley with the same lack of enthusiasm.

a couple of miles later, i think it was on the western slope of antichrist hill, i had drunk enough gatorade and rested my legs enough to push it a bit again. i ramped back up to 20mph and, with the help of a slight tailwind, kept it at that most of the way home. my speed dipped only slightly on cemetery hill and mock hill.

i spun past kiser's again, not feeling the same as when i first rolled by. i turned onto pine and cruised to the finish line. done. done in really. not sure how my run's going to go later on. i guess time will tell.