Team TIAA-CREF - 2005

Team Journal Entry - May 5, 2005, by Ian MacGregor

Lookout Mountain hurts...

Whoa, talk about a shock to the body; twenty minutes of maximum effort with no warm up at eight in the morning! After returning home from Georgia to a very cold and snowy Colorado it was time for a little rest and recovery.

Not to mention I am ready to be done with winter, so I didn't really feel like training in the 28°F wet conditions. After taking a couple of days really easy, I hammered out (well I rode slowly, but thanks to the cold and all the clothes I had on it felt like I was hammering) a four-hour ride on Thursday. It's amazing how much the body shuts down after a few weeks of hard racing followed by a couple days easy or totally off. But that's exactly why I had to do that miserable four-hour ride, all to get the body going again.

The next day (Friday) Micro and I climbed up Lookout Mountain in a snowstorm in preparation for the next morning's assault! This morning we headed over to register for the Lookout Mountain hill climb, both of us not really sure how it would go...

The weather was really rough; about the only type of race you could do was an uphill one. It was about 30°F, but at least the road was dry. All I wanted to do was put in a good effort. After over a month at sea level and a few days off the bike I didn't think my body would be open enough for such a high intensity effort. It turns out that I was right, at least to a point. I finished the race in third - not too bad a result, but believe me I went as hard as I could! Man did it hurt, my body was still in recover mode, but at least now I've given it the shock it needed to get things rolling again.

Thanks for your time!

Ian
www.justgoharder.com