I recently had the opportunity to go to Mazatlan, Mexico to ride my bike. With what has seemed to be a fairly cold winter this year it was a relief to get out of the cold and experience some shorts and jersey weather as well as get some solid training in over two weeks.
The daily routine was fairly simple. We got up every morning at 5:30am and got out on the roads for around 4-6 hours of riding. The amount of time we spent on our bikes was really an eye opening experience for me. I've done blocks of high volume before, but not like this. The limit is much further away than I thought it was, as we did a solid 50 hours of riding over 14 days, with many of the rides including a fair bit of interval work. The lower altitude helped, with nearly a 1000m drop compared to Calgary - I felt significantly more powerful and I think I was recovering faster too.
Part of what made the trip so great was having some awesome company for riding. Lee Nelson, a friend from my cycling club always made the rides fun with some friendly competition. There was much cross-eyed panting as I tried to hold his wheel up some of the incredible climbs. Example Gratis:
The other great part was getting to know and ride with cycling legend Paul Wolfe. We had the incredibly good fortune of being hosted by Paul for the duration of the trip. I was really taken aback by his generosity and just generally the amount of life experience and wisdom he had to share. After riding with him for a few days I realized he likely the fittest 60 year old I have ever met. I'd also hazard a guess that he is one of the fittest 60 year olds around period. His racing pedigree is quite impressive, and includes winning the tour of Africa in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_d'Afrique).
The trip was also a great time to reflect on 2016. All round it was a pretty great year. I got into a sweet Masters program studying fluid dynamics at the U of C, started and ended a great relationship, and had some good times racing my bike with a fantastic road season. With 2017 getting into full swing, I'm looking forward to the new experiences it bring.
The trip was also a great time to reflect on 2016. All round it was a pretty great year. I got into a sweet Masters program studying fluid dynamics at the U of C, started and ended a great relationship, and had some good times racing my bike with a fantastic road season. With 2017 getting into full swing, I'm looking forward to the new experiences it bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment