In Brett’s defense, he sent this to me a few weeks ago but it got buried in my inbox. -Ebert
So the season is rapidly approaching, and the intensity is starting to pick up. Over Easter Weekend, I enjoyed the privilege of hitting some hills with teammate Alex Sharon down in good ol’ Bloomington, Indiana. And let me tell you what — it’s not all that enjoyable to do an intense climbing ride with a skinny lil mountaineer, but it was still fun. We hit up some climbs, ate good grub, drank some great coffee and wasted away on the couch to some on-Demand TV delights. All in all a great weekend, and magnificent prep for the Tour of Virginia!
Next, the training ride of the devil…well there I was pounding some coffee toying with the insane idea of riding outside in a beautiful 50 degree rainy day. Well the Belgium in me got the best of the situation and before I knew it I was off and about. Luckily for me, about 30 minutes into the ride the clouds parted and the sun came out. So I went ahead, completed my intervals and started on the long trek back home, when all of the sudden there was a massive gust of wind. Now when I say massive I mean insane! The wind gust pushed me clear across the road and into a roadside ditch! Within minutes the air had cooled from an enjoyable 60 or so to a scary 50 degrees and ominous clouds appeared from nowhere. Now at this point I am starting to get a bit concerned, after all I am in the middle of nowhere with no shelter about to get pummeled by some bully clouds. And then by the hand of Thor it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained, and hailed. Now to be honest, I lucked out, the hail was only 1/4 inch…but with wind gust shooting trees across the road those modest 1/4 inch hail quickly became little bullets pelting me! At this point I am flipping out, trees are going down and garbage is flying everywhere; being the conscientious athlete that I am, I took a gander at my heart rate monitor…195! Dare I say I was a bit scared? Suddenly as soon as it came it went, and the sun came out. Rolling back into campus I heard tornado alarms, car alarms and fire trucks everywhere; but I tell you what the look on peoples’ faces as I pedaled home were priceless! Behind me a whirlpool of black deadly clouds, in front a huge Chipotle Burrito…I’m thinking cow for sure.
ABD training camp was amazing. We lucked out in almost every conceivable way, the weather was great, the company was enjoyable, and the Paddlewheel Inn (personally deemed the Pad) was super. Day one was a solid 90-mile day with ample wind, plenty of tempo, and some crazy-sweet paceline sessions followed by Italian cuisine. Day two was simply one of the most fulfilling training rides of the year and about 100 miles to boot. I learned a ton about proper leadouts, and got my arse kicked on multiple occasions! The single greatest point of the trip was the downing of the largest steak I had seen in years. Being a deprived college student in all, I hadn’t had steak for well, a darn long time…sticking mostly to my canned tuna regimen; so naturally with any red meat offer you can always look for a heart-felt YES! Day three was struggle to say the least. While walking over to the continental breakfast, I quickly noticed that my legs weighed approximately 947 lbs each creating a bit of a challenge to get moving. We hit the road hot and did some nice little intrasquad racing, essentially trying to punish one anoother. Needless to say I was more than ready to hit the road and get some leg up time…the long weekend was tough but first-rate!
Later on,
Brett
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