Day 19, Rest Day

Today was a complete rest day.  I slept in until 7am which is an hour and a half longer then normal.  It felt great and I needed it.  After taking my time getting going we grabbed some breakfast unloaded the Flex of all of the ride gear the crew headed to Fredricksburg, TX.  This was a cool town and if you are ever down this way I would suggest stopping in.  We walked around for a while, had lunch and then headed back to Comfort for a little more RNR.  I wrote this blog and watched a movie.

Tomorrow we ride, we have a long week of hill climbs ahead of us and I am hoping that the two days off helped us rather then hurt us.  There is a chance that resting for this long could cause our legs to go "flat" but i am hoping this does not happen.

So let me try to describe to you riding the hills we have encountered so far.  Step back a few blogs to the start of the morning.  You are now say an hour into your ride, the sun has come up you are warmed up.  You can here the hum of the tires on the road, you have a good tune playing on your i pod,  your breathing is smooth and un-labored.  You are looking ahead watching the trees and cows pass by as you ride.by.  You look ahead and you see the road rising in front of you.  A car passes and you see it climb up and out of site.  You take a sip of water, eat a little something and start to increase your cadence.  The hill approaches you begin to feel the incline as the pedaling becomes more labored, you shift your position on the saddle and move your hands from the hoods (this is were the brakes and shifters are, and where you typically rest your hands) to the flat part of the bar.  You now are starting to breath harder your legs are starting to strain in your muscles, you shift once as you crest what you think is the top, Elation feels you until you see that this is a false summit, then you feel a little despair but you set back into place and begin again.  The only difference this time is that the pitch of the incline seems to be steeper and the hill looks longer.  You  shift one more time and try to keep you legs turning, you can feel the lactic acid start to build the legs.  Imagine tiny matches all over your legs burning at once.  You look up the hill steepens again you keep straining but your cadence is getting lower and you are starting slow way down.  It is now or never you think, you place your hands back on the hoods, shift down to gears you hear the click thud as the derailleur moves.  In one move you are up and out of the saddle your grip tightens on the bars you press down using your arms to control the bike.  Now your entire body is engaged in reaching the top, your legs feel a little lighter, at least for a while it is easier to pedal, you abs, back shoulders are all engaged in the movements of the bike.  Left right left your legs push down with as much force as they have, your heart is racing your breathing is labored you try to keep the bike as steady as possible you look up the top is almost there.  More intense burning starts you mumble something to yourself to get motivated one, two three more pedal strokes and then boom you are at the top....nope.  The hill keeps going you shift back down not deflated this time by the fact that there is one more hill, now you feel resolve you will not be beaten by the road.  You settle into a rhythm find the right song take a drink and push on.

A famous mountaineer once was asked why he wanted to climb to the highest peaks. He simply answered because they are there.  We ride for more then that but each day we climb these hills that cause us pain but they go away.  This is lucky for us, those with PD don't get a reprieve from the "hills" they face.  But each day they wake up shake off the symptoms as best they can and move on with life.  So we must shake off the burn of the hills and pedal on.