{"id":2457,"date":"2012-05-12T09:19:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-12T15:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2012-05-14T22:00:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T04:00:27","slug":"up-into-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/2012\/05\/12\/up-into-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"Up Into the Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the Bicycle Tour of Colorado (BTC), I headed to the hills this morning. I had a feeling I would be one of just a few cyclists riding in the So. St. Vrain Canyon today as it was a cold dreary morning with a good chance of rain. I drove to the Lyon’s park that serves as the cyclist gathering point. There was only one other car there this morning — and I didn’t get there until close to 10 am! It was close to 40 F as I started to pack my pockets and get Pogo ready to ride.<\/p>\n

My pockets were stuffed today. I had the usual iPhone, snacks & camera, but I also had a rain jacket and rain pants — just to keep the rain away. I was wearing my winter riding gear — my Pearl Isumi barrier jacket over my winter-weight jersey & base layer, long mid-weight tights and my (heavy) winter riding shoes with covers. Long fingered gloves and my turtle-fur helmet liner completed my outfit. I’d have to shed a little when I was climbing, but I’d want it all (and probably more!) on the descent back to Lyons.<\/p>\n

Yesterday when I rode back into work on the second leg of my commute, I was tired. Not sleepy tired, but fatigued tired. My training plan called for me to put in two 20 minute efforts where I elevated my heart rate (HR) to 140-155. Well, I tried. My body resisted and my legs cried out “NO!” when I tried to ramp up my effort. I tried several times — just in case my first attempts were too early in my ride and I wasn’t quite warmed up yet. Each time I had the same result. My legs weren’t having any of it!<\/p>\n

Well, today was a continuation of that theme. I was OK going along at a relatively low-effort level, but as soon as I tried to elevate to a more strenuous level my body (mostly my legs) resisted. \u00a0My HR gravitated towards the 120’s and it took a major mental & physical focus to nudge it into the 130’s. I hardly saw it go above 140 all day. \u00a0I think this is a sign that my body needs a break. Will be talking to my coach about adjusting the training plan going forward to include more recovery time between hard efforts.<\/p>\n

The canyon was gorgeous today – looked very different with low hanging clouds hovering right above the tree tops. It was quiet and there wasn’t much traffic – bike or car. Very enjoyable. Just wish I had more ‘jump in my skates.’<\/p>\n

Here are some photos from today —<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is what’s left of a mountain after several year’s of strip mining – at least that’s what I think they’re doing. Maybe they just felt like carving it back a bit — (Really?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not your normal canyon shot. Low hanging clouds and chilly temps were the order of the day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the little Raymond store. On a nice, warm weekend, there’d by a half dozen or more bikes outside the store at any time. Today, there wasn’t a single one. The store owner had a fire going though, in case a cold cyclist should wander in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I got to the Peak-to-Peak highway, the sun poked out for just a few minutes and I actually saw my shadow. Well, I saw Pogo’s shadow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the Bicycle Tour of Colorado (BTC), I headed to the hills this morning. I had a feeling I would be one of just a few cyclists riding in the So. St. Vrain Canyon today as it was a cold dreary morning with a good chance of rain. I drove to the Lyon’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2473,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions\/2473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}