Tuesday Climbing and Wednesday Testing....

Last night I made it to the weekly Tuesday night hill climb ride. TGH gets together at T-Mobile in Factoria for a 2.5 hour jaunt up some of the local hills on the east side. Melinda clued me in to going - and now I'm the lonely non-groupie who showed. Although we do a lot of hills - I think my climbing is coming along at a great pace. I finally feel like I'm getting in shape - and the fitter I am, the more hurt I can do. :)

We sprinted for the city limit sign - Trish, Erin and Izzette were lined up ready to give it a go. I had no idea where the sign was - so happily pulled. They sat in and I could tell it was coming up. Finally they got sick of sitting behind me and making me pull so Trish, Erin and Izzette all came around me. I sensed the upcoming jump - Izzette went first, Trish to her left and Erin coming up from behind. That's when I threw the after burners on and flew by. Trish said, "FUDGE" and then Izzette, a little further up the road, "FFFFUUUUDDDDGGGGEEEEE." And I just giggled in glee. Oh I can't wait for the road season to start. I haven't used the sprinting efforts in a while - they feel a little dusty. But I'm sure it'll come back in no time.

This morning I woke up with heavy legs - knowing full well today was another Cougar test. I've built up some confidence from attending the Tuesday nights - but it's hard when you go solo to truly 100% push yourself. I parked on Mercer Island and warmed up to the bottom of Cougar via McDonald's. The first section went well - shaving another minute off my PR last November. Then I hit a wall and for the life of me could not put out any power. Where did it go? I can guarantee it was partly due to last night's effort and then letting those negative thoughts seep into my consciousness. Oh well - I still did a PR to the summit - 34 minutes. It felt good - but I know I still need to work on thinking the best and getting into a rhythm even when I'm in the hurt locker.

Racing starts in little less than a month - and I'm excited to see what happens this year.