Mountains and Molehills

I am now halfway into week 1 of training for Kona and I am exhausted and convinced that I cannot make it through the Ironman there. We have now had 5 days of 90+ degree weather. I feel like I am back in Lubbock! Actually, I think it is worse than Lubbock. Yesterday I was smart and got my workout started at 5am. My new riding buddy (local 20 yo cyclist – funny story…he was listening to an iPod while we road (and yes I yelled at him) and I asked what he was listening to. He said country – mostly the older stuff. I just looked at him and laughed. I was like what is “older stuff” to you??) …anyway, we headed out for a 4hour ride just as the sun was coming up. We had an incredible ride through central NY. We both agreed that we have the absolute best cycling roads and terrain anywhere. But bad news for me – he picked the route..and he likes HILLS. We did a lot of climbing and all that kept going through my mind was …”and you still get to run after this!” As we hit the 3 hour mark, he started complaining of tired legs. I knew if we went long enough I could outlast him! Seriously, he gave me some good tips on climbing hills and riding faster, in general. Hopefully we can ride more this summer so I can be even faster when I get to Kona.
SO, in general, on the bike, I tend to avoid hills. I don’t like slowing down. I hate the way my quads burn by the time I get to the top. I hate that they slow down my overall average mph for the ride. They hurt!!!! Last year, I had Karen’s blessing to ride flat because Chesapeakeman was a flat course. Her opinion is that you should practice the terrain that you will be racing on. I am not sure I agree with this. I could ride flat forever. I love hitting 25-30mph and just going. Karen says that riding flat is tough because you have nothing to break up the monotony. I guess I do agree with the boring part…there’s nothing like flying down a hill at 45mph with the wind blowing through your helmet. But I still think riding hills builds strength that will carry through those boring rides.
Before I moved to Syracuse, I lived in FLAT Buffalo, NY. I tried for years to break 18 minutes for a 5K. I was being coached by Owen Anderson but could just not get my time down. I ran a lot of 18:10′s, though!! I moved to Syracuse in May. After about a month, I went to the doctor to be tested for exercise-induced asthma. I was sure something had to be wrong because I was exhausted on every run. Needless to say, I did NOT have asthma but was just adjusting to the new terrain. I ran my first 5K here in August and shattered my old PR with a 17:24!
Now I am hoping riding the hills will do the same for my bike speed. My goal for this summer is to get a new attitude towards the hills. I am going to embrace them (and let me say there are plenty of them here in CNY to learn to love!). Heading out to ride mountains…not molehills…