Increasing My Endurance

I'm worried I'm not really in the kind of shape I need to be in to be competitive in my class (singlespeed or expert, depending on the race). Circumstances have somewhat kept me off the bike; I also just haven't been as dedicated to putting in the time, truthfully. The weather hasn't helped, but that would be true for everyone. Hopefully this year, instead of waning as the season wears on, I'll get stronger and finish at my peak.

In any case, I have three races in the next four weeks staring me in the face. Greenbrier, 12 hours of Lodi, and 24 hours of Conyers. Although, I don't think anyone has registered for Conyers yet, and I'm therefore not on a team, so it's not a sure thing I'll be going. Sunday I had the day free to do any kind of training I wanted. My first thought was to go around Greenbrier as many times as I could as race prep. But my biggest worry is my endurance. My skills have improved this year over last, no worries there. The most sensible training was therefore a long, hard road ride.

After spending a couple hours cleaning up the bottom bracket of my road bike and getting everything back together, I drove to Frederick to ride "Catoctin Climber" from "Scott and Jim's Favorite Bike Rides" (ride number 7). This is a 46 mile ride with about 5,000 feet of climbing, and the hardest in the book according to Scott and Jim. It was a late start; I clipped in at about 1:30 PM and started down the road, thinking, "This is going to hurt. This is going to be painful." But, that's what it will take if I'm to finish a 100 mile mountain bike race, or 4 to 5 laps in a 12 or 24 hour race. The first climb did hurt, coming as it did immediately at the start. But the hardest climb, Harp Hill (the steepest section of road I've ever ridden on my road bike) was just that. Hard. I wouldn't say it really hurt. The most tortuous part of the ride was the last 7 miles or so, when my lack of endurance was really showing. I just had nothing in the tank. It wasn't helping that I was dehydrated and my stomach was wigging out. Getting hydration, food, and stomach right has always been the hardest part of any long ride for me. The best part of the ride was after turning into Catoctin Mountain Park. No cars, little wind, it was a bit of uphill, and quiet like I haven't heard in too, too long. That section was too short to bring a lasting peace, but it was good to catch a glimpse. It makes me realize I haven't been on a backpacking trip in much too long. I did get chased by a menacing looking black dog on, I think Harmony road, the one before Harp Hill. He came from out of nowhere; never barked, though I caught snatches of a snarl as I managed to outrun him, having worked up some speed at that point.

So it was I finished the ride almost exactly 3 1/2 hours after starting, for an average of 13.4 mph (for all of you with calculators, I sneaked in an extra mile after I took a wrong turn -- I was tired). Pretty darn slow. Well, it's a start to increasing my endurance.