Endless Glycogen

Wow. What a weekend.

Coming out of a super strong Thanksgiving block of training had me going into this weekend pretty optimistic of what I was capable of doing. I spent Friday night Christmas shopping for my fiancee. Little did I know I would make perhaps the greatest decision on food ever. I was at the mall and like an overweight holiday shopper, found myself surveying the scene in the food court for dinner options. There was the typical: burgers, Sbarro, shitty sit-down restaurant, awful Chinese food, and to my surprise Greek (fast) food. Of course I opted for the Greek option. I was starving so I loaded up on the combo dish with pita, two kinds of meat, rice, vegetables, and a delicious baklava for desert. All in all, it came out to over $14! You know you got your gorge on when you spend $14 on fast food. Soooo good and soooo many calories. Calories that would come in handy the following morning. At the time, I didn’t realize how well those delicious Greek calories would perform.

Fast forward to Saturday morning, 6:45am. The alarm goes off and I’m up instantly. I eat my usual oatmeal dish with lots of honey and raisins. Still the best pre-ride fuel for long, hard days in the saddle. I meet the guys at Bang at 8:30 and we’re off down south to ride the Worlds course. We hit the climb up to Roxborough Park and I’m feeling real good. We re-group at the top and head back towards a bunch of rollers and Chatfield. After going through Chatfield, we re-group once again to discuss who is doing what. At this point I’m about 50 miles and 3 hours into the ride and I’m feeling great. My legs are super strong and feel like they’ve got a few more hours left in them. The whole group decides they are going back home, but Applebottom and I decide we are going to hit High Grade. We break off High Grade – me mostly in zone 3 and Applebottom probably in one his recovery zones. We are greeted with refreshing slush water at the top of High Grade – an indication that we are indeed hard men in a soft world. We decide to head home through Conifer, north on 73, east on 74 through Evergreen, Morrison, and out to Garrison Road.

At this point I’m 80+ miles in and I’m still feeling good. Damn that Greek food rocks. Plus, I’ve been eating and drinking regularly throughout the ride, so that certainly helps. Applebottom has been taking massive cat 2 pulls at the front the whole way back. It’s doubtful I would have felt as good as I did had Applebottom not let me ride in his taxi the whole way back. But I did repay him once we got to Garrison. For some reason he didn’t know about the Garrison way home – which is one of the greatest treasures in the Denver metro area. What a fantastic way to get home after a long ride. He was impressed. Anyhow, I got home STILL feeling good. Surprisingly good. All told, I logged 103 miles in 5 hours and 45 minutes, with 3,500 KJs of work. We did about 6,000 feet of climbing too. Not too shabby for a 35 degree winter training ride.

Sunday: After gorging on delicious food last night, I woke up this morning wondering if I would be able to walk. Again I surprised myself. I felt fine. As I jumped on my bike at 9:15 to meet up with Randy at the Bucks in Golden, it was chilly and my sit bones were a bit sore. How strange. After riding for about 5 minutes the soreness went away and I was feeling like a million bucks again (despite being cold primarily on my face). We met up in cold ass Golden and decided to head Northwest to Superior and Louisville. The ride up to Superior had us topping off at McCaslin Blvd and South Boulder Road. We went through Louisville and dropped down into the mall at the Interlocken clusterF. On the way back we had a couple planes flying super low above our heads. Kinda cool. Clocked an easy 61 miles in 3.5 hours. Again, my legs felt like gold. I can only imagine this is what it feels like to be flying after riding a grand tour or something. I feel like I’ve got endless glycogen. It’s a feeling I would pay to have at the Gila next year. Maybe I’m getting better. Or maybe I’ve unlocked the mystery to an endless supply of Glycogen. Who knows. But I’ll take it.

Weekend totals: 164 miles, 9 hours 15 minutes, 5,350 KJs of work.

KILLED IT.