TXCiclista

Alas, I didn't finish. There were a whole bunch of things involved, but it basically boiled down to two pretty serious issues. (1) My Wahoo ELEMNT auto-calculated the HR zones wrong. I found a new max a few weeks ago and bumped it up, but the ELEMNT (PSA here!) considers Zone 5 to only be 100%, and calculated all other zones accordingly. As a result, I spent 2.5h in Zone 4, thinking I was in Zone 3 the whole time. While any other day, that might be a good sign of my fitness, 100 miles in 100-degree weather with @*&# wind was not the day. (2) a pretty serious pain cropped up in my lower right hind end around Hell's Gate. I'm old enough (and diabetic enough) to not be too keen on pushing through pain like that, so I decided to just call it a day at 70 miles.

Looking back, however, aside from the disappointment that comes from not hitting my goal, I actually count the weekend as a success. Given my HR graph for the ride, I actually had one of my strongest rides since I started back to riding (16.7mph over the 70 miles, with only about 15-20 of that benefiting from a tailwind), and just being there was an experience in and of itself (the crits were lots of fun). I got over some off my apprehension about going to an event that "serious," and I have a new-found respect for the 'ordeal' that is the HHH. I ended a bit humbled, but with a good training motivator for the next 364 days. I also know I could have finished if I'd had the correct HR zones for pacing myself and if I hadn't had the butt pain. On the other hand, I got Good Husband Points from my wife for listening to my body rather than taking risks, and those are always good to have.

So anyway, perhaps more than you wanted to hear, but it's been an interesting-enough 24 hours that I felt like over-sharing. All told, the HHH was the most impactful ride I've had all year and I'm looking forward to tackling beating it next year.