Lead Legs

The past week has been a bit of a puzzle on the bike.  After a couple of weeks of hard efforts, it was time to scale back and let the legs recover a little.  The little I got on the bike, the legs felt like they were riding tires through molasses.  My heart rate spiked and it felt like I had lost all sorts of power.

It could just be timing in the training cycle, or it could be my training (not really following any program other than going out and riding) is all sorts of messed up.

I went up North Fork last week and my legs and cardio system were not happy at all.  It was weird!  This was after taking a light week too.  It was with much trepidation that I went into my long ride day on Saturday, not really knowing how the body and legs would respond.  The plan was regardless of how the legs felt, the long ride ramp up goes on...

It was an ominous sign when I rode out of the hood and our hill climb out of the hood felt hard...uh oh...Somehow the legs started to loosen up a little after about 2 1/2 hrs and despite the legs feeling a little better.  I decided to punish myself with a repeat of North Fork after being in the saddle for a little time.  The weird thing is the body responded better to the slap in the face called N Fork after riding a few hrs, compared to how bad it felt earlier in the week coming in fresh without a long ride.  Weird weird weird.

The legs felt better - albeit, not good.  It might be time to crank up the intensity as we are less than a month away from the High Cascades hundie.  I still have more long days to put in the saddle but with a little hope, the legs will continue to move away from the 'lead phase' and move into the 'steel phase'!

Some pictures from the recent ride(s):