Life at +9,000 feet is challenging. Tuesday I rode from the condo here in Frisco up to Montezuma at 10,200 feet. It wasn't easy but I pushed up some 9% grades. The gains of riding at 150 beats per minute (bpm) versus 170 bpm are minimal, which is good and bad. There just isn't much benefit when spending those extra 20 heart beats per minute, however now I know that pushing myself to my lactate threshold really won't help me much, so I can sit back in my comfort zone between 155 and 160 bpm and go just about as fast.
The tough part of the elevation is the everyday living: I'm not sleeping well because each time I drift into sleep my respiration slows too much and I wake up with a big gasp for air. I repeat this for hours. Tonight I think I'll try a breathe right strip to help open the passages and maybe I can sleep better.
For added stress when I got up here my brakes were mushy and the levers pulled back closer to the handlebar: there's in the lines. Those tiny, inconsequential bubbles at sea level grew into problems at elevation. So I ran into a local shop here to have them bled and one of the handlebar clamps broke... this has happened before and Shimano warrantied the lever, but I'm sitting here with less than 3 days and no front brake. Luckily the guys at Podium Sports are on their game: before they called me to say it was broken, they phoned Shimano got the part warrantied with next day shipping. THEN they phoned me with the bad news and told me a free replacement was on it's way. By 11am this morning by bike was race-ready again. Well done! Had that not gone so smoothly, the boys at Win's Wheels we ready to next-day me the parts I needed. Having a solid working relationship with a top-notch bike shop has been imperative to any successes along the way. Hopefully I can reward the boys with a shiny new belt buckle. And the song goes:
4, 3, 2, 1
Earth below us
drifting, falling.
Floating weightless
calling, calling home...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment