I did a hilly training ride this morning. The brief was fairly simple: ride for c.2hrs, keep it low z2 on the flats, but go hard (threshold) on the hills.
Anyway, I wasn’t feeling it - no legs today. But my competitive urge got a bit sparked.
At about the 3/4 of this particular route, you come out of a little village, then begin a long, almost dead straight, slightly uphill drag to a crossroads, where you turn right and have a short-ish sharp-ish rise to the top of the hill.
As I came out of the village, I caught sight of another rider perhaps 400m away from me up the road, so I decided to try and catch him. At a steady 260w, I was making no headway. At 280, I was gaining slowly. I then went all in at well over 300w for the remainder of the climb and he still reached the top perhaps 50m ahead of me.
At this distance, it was obvious that the rider was an older gentleman, and - with no offence - he didn’t look especially athletic, so my failure to catch him was, well, a worry and a surprise.
Anyway, I gasped and panted my way past him just over the top of the hill, heart rate in the 170s, where he initiated a conversation, with apparently only slight shortness of breath. I had spit and snot everywhere and could only manage short phrases.
Just when I was about to chuck my bike in the bush, call a taxi and resolve to take up bowls, I clocked the bike: an e-bike!
So, I’m now a) mildly re-assured, and b) considering getting one for the wife and getting her to pace me up the hills!
