The End recap

I just watched my son pull off a killer workout. First the explanation, Chris did a hill workout today, with a weight vest on (its like carrying a 5yr old piggyback) and he headed up Keehler, a 1.4 mile climb that is considered a Cat 4 doing a low walk the whole way. The focus was intense, he had to remember certain things: 1. to actually push off rather than letting gravity take him, generating the push rather than falling up the hill 2. to keep his back parallel to the pitch of the road rather than staying really compressed for the whole walk 3. to keep his cadence calculated and not rushed so that each step was intentional not rushed.
Here is the profile: 

He reached the top 25 minutes after he started out and then strolled back down (with the vest on- there was nowhere to ditch it). As if that was not enough, he spent another 30 minutes doing abs. You see, unless you have ever experienced Keeler you don't understand. There are A+ cyclists here that HATE that hill more than any other hill around and often avoid it. They cry, cringe, carry on like 2 year olds...Yes it is only a cat 4 climb and the canyons in Utah were HC in places, but this climb does not allow one to gain a rhythm going up, its unpredictably hard each and every time. I think that IS the only predictable thing about it. BUT Chris walked you say? Yes, technically, but a low walk is different. Squat down like you are sitting on the edge of a chair (knees forward), now keep your back parallel to the ground (but relaxed) and walk making sure only to have one foot on the ground at any given time and MAKE SURE your hips stay at that same height (remember the chair seat) the whole time, no coming up. Now, walk up hill for over a mile, oh wait, don't forget the kindergartner on your back that you are giving a ride to...hurting yet? Most people have difficulty walking this way on flat ground, without a vest for more than 3 minutes, he endured this for 25min up this isn't so bad, this sucks farts, wtF, I am going to shoot myself, OS I am going to puke, you have to be kidding me, its not over yet, Keeler Lane. Thank God it wasn't HOT!!!

Who was the mastermind of this ingenious idea? Bud. I joined them on this escapade, walking along side them, trying not to puke. Thinking about how Bud and I used to ride repeats on that hill occasionally and how I used to be on the verge of puking or passing out each and every time, usually in the same place, where I would start to think that it was NEVER going to end. Looking back, that summer was the summer before my first year at New Canaan. I was training for a very long cross state ride that would require me to put in about 100 miles a day for 6 days straight, one of those days was actually 150 miles. Bud helped me train and I managed that ride, all 650 miles of it, at 18.5 mph. I felt like that summer was too short. I started school the day after I finished that ride. 

Tomorrow I start school. Its the end of a dream like summer that seemed to rush by so quickly. I managed to dance at a concert with the headliner (and some really good friends), cross the country (both north and central), see things I have always wanted to see, spend some time learning about physiology, spend a good deal of time on my bike (and even more time on my other bike in the woods), try golf, I got to camp, swim in COLD lakes, climb on massive sand dunes, complete a workout I hadn't done since college and even though I didn't make it to the beach once I felt like my summer was complete (almost). Its hard to go back to that 5AM- 9PM time frame. I am so much more of an 11-7 person. Hey, at least I have next summer to look forward to. (I am applying for a residency SOMEWHERE). I also want to try to put a team together for the Salt to Saint. Anyone who thinks they are interested, has a local connection to get us both an RV and a van...let me know. PS Riding in the dark ROCKS! Trust me on that one.

So on the schedule for tomorrow? I am driving to the park and ride in Bedford and riding my bike from there to school. Why drive at all? I don't want to start with 50 milers back to back even in this kind of shape, school is tiring, and I want to ride more than one day this week. Its my way of squeezing out every last drop of summer.