Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Wheels O' Fire-Part Deux

I went back down to Hamilton this last weekend to do the 3rd Annual Wheels O' Fire Century. Regular readers of these ramblings will remember my post on the event from last year and the fact that the course was very hilly with several leg burning climbs up the Pine Mountian ridgeline. Last year I fininshed the 101 mile distance in just under five hours. This year was a vast improvement with the time being 4:38 over the same distance in the same conditions. That means that I improved about 8% over last year or that I'm around 8% stronger now that I was last year.

This information gives me a lot of confidence for the upcoming season. It tells me that not only is my fitness coming along nicely but also that my training is improving my fitness over the long term. The assumption is that competitors are doing the same but my hope is that my improvements are little bit greater than there's are and that over time I'll catch up with those that are going faster than I am right now. Given that I'm planning a late spring/summer peak, I should be going slower than the guys that are flying now but faster later in the season. Hopefully that'll hold true.

For now though, I've gained some confidence from my ride and I'll take that into the next several weeks of racing. This week is rest and recovery and then it's onto the really hard work of the Build 2 period where I go out and do all the big climbs I can find and I do lots and lots more intervals.

Thanks for reading.

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