Amazing photos.
Hermes the 2 times I rode in elevation I started noticing at ~7000 ft. Neither time with power meter so can't be sure. just muscles weren't in pain as usual due to not getting enough air to push that hard.
I rode on Saturday. After the 310 TSS Friday, I couldn't get out of recovery mode. Then after an hour or so I found a new hill trail and discovered 10+ minutes of threshold in me.
Did a nice 11 mile hike with my wife on Sunday with a lake swim and a beach waterfall.
I'm kinda with Wylde06. Not so much given up on bikes tho, but more seem to be growing out of spending my free hours of life in singular pursuit of fruitless competition with and against half-strangers accompanying 6 hours in traffic. Bikes for fun is a thing. But I look around and see the same guys in the mix at all the races and don't understand what the end goal is. I'm starting to get the impression that a lot of these guys aren't even struggling for dear life just to survive - like some of them actually get to play games with the other kids. I'm starting to think a lot of these guys drive 2 hours each way not even expecting to get dropped. I get the impression that a lot of these guys are somehow FASTER then when they were cat 4, while here I am quite a bit slower, and a much better wheel-sucker. I even hear guys complaining about "that guy" who wouldn't work in the break, and I just have to keep silent cuz maybe "that guy" happened to be a mortal human who was tired. I guess that's how a lot of cat 5s and 4s feel as well and why they drop out of the sport. The difference is they haven't done 230 races and don't yet know for sure how much it sucks to get beat on every weekend for 5 years straight. Anyways, I can at least still play in the 2/3 races depending on who shows up. And I may stick around here and there, might even come out to CCCX on Saturday, but I do wanna see what else life has to offer beyond the same 7 guys predictably riding faster than 13 other dudes, while another 9 dudes dangle desperately in the pack only to add numbers to the winner's scorecard.