Thursday 22 May 2014

the day Strava nearly killed me


there's a certain "segment" on Strava that i inadvertantly managed to get 4th place on. Purely by accident of course, I was just riding up the hill as part of a ride and uploading the data at home that night i noticed I was only 6 seconds short of being the leader. Motivated by this, i thought to myself, "6 seconds is nothing" and hatched a plan to have a go at getting the best time. the climb is steep, is straing up for 2/3rds of its length and then turns 90 degrees left, still on the rise amd on to the brow of the hill.
I knew i had to save some energy as i had to climb over the Lickey Hills first so i soft pedalled all the way. at least a couple of gears below those i would normally choose. got to the bottom of the climb, settled my breathing then launched myself onto the face of the climb. I was soon 1/3 of the way up and sucking big wind into my lungs. legs good i kept straight rather than zig zagged to make the climb as short as possible. As i turned the corner my lungs were really feeling the effort. legs were good though and i kept on, willing myself to pedal quicker and thinking, "just a few more revolutions" and i could stop.
I crested the summit and by lungs felt white hot and constricted, I've heard that athletes who give everything can taste blood afterwards and I'm sure so could I. Exercise induced asthma maybe as i had to have a good cough, lungs not feeling constricted, i stopped briefly to get my breath back before carrying on, I felt pretty rubbish I'll be honest, but carried on with the rest of my ride. As i went on I felt better, but today, writing this my lungs still don't feel 100% the cough is no where near as bad but my lungs feel like they do when I get my tree pollen allergy, i.e. just of the cusp of being wheezy but with only occasional coughs. Now is the height of the tree pollen season and the climb is through the woods.
but the worst thing? I uploaded the ride to strava and todays ride was 1 second slower than my last attempt!! still in 4th! grr!
Ride 73
13 miles
Total 1359
commute 377

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