Brown County and Butt Kickin'

As seems to be the case lately, I've been a very busy girl the last few days. I've been getting my assigned training in, but not with time left to blog about it. At least my priorities are in the right place.

As my pictures indicate, I went to Brown County Tuesday night. My assignment was 2.5 hours of long and short hills with at least 10% of the time in Zone 4-5. It wasn't necessarily supposed to be on the dirt, but I added that part myself, as I still feel very behind on my off-road riding for the season. I also thought the loose structure would be a good chance to ride some of the newer out-and-back trails that I haven't be on much, since they don't work so well for the hills reps and TT intervals that seem to dominate my dirt time. I actually had several 4-5 hour mountain bike rides scheduled leading up to the Lumberjack, but like clockwork, it managed to rain for all of them. Anyway, I wanted to get some time in on the new trails, as they are a lot more technical and I need to bump up my rock skills if I want to improve on my last place finish at the OC next year.

I doodled around for the first half-hour or so, taking pictures and bathroom breaks. The new trails are a lot less hilly than I remembered, consisting of a few short, rocky inclines to muscle over. Basically, I felt like I was going mostly downhill for the first hour and which was actually kind of boring, as I'm not that great of a descender in general and wasn't feeling very daredevlish. I also forgot how much earlier it gets dark in the woods, so my ride time came up short. I did get 10% Zone 4 time, but just barely. I will be going back Saturday and to try to get in the whole trail system at a moderate pace.

Last night was my second Wednesday Night Worlds, and I had a 100% improvement, meaning I made it 20 minutes without getting dropped instead of 10. I also met my goal of chasing back on the first couple of times I was gapped by the field, but eventually they did pull away. Luckily, it was a multi-lap route and I was able to jump in with some stragglers on the way in after attacking some really hard climbs by myself. It was definitely the best workout I've had in some time and my legs are really sore and dead today.

Fortunately, today is much-needed rest day. I was actually responsible this week and got my homework done on Monday, so all I "had" to do after work today was come home, watch a movie, and catch up on my blog. It's a wonderful feeling, even it if won't last for long. Tomorrow is back to the grindstone.