Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. We had a good time with friends and family. A nice choppy work week (Tuesday and Wednesday off) helped make the time go faster. This week is the same, no work Tuesday or Wednesday. So that helps.

What this does do is remind me that the end of 2024 is here. It has been an interesting year for sure, but I am not ready to post on that yet. This post is more about my last few rides and some races for next year. 

The mental battle a few nights ago was a pretty solid win for me. I decided to follow that up with a few days off with the family. I jumped back in on Friday with a Zwift Camp baseline workout. It didn't go exactly as planned, but it was a solid ride overall. Trying to hold high power output for me is proving to be difficult. This is part of why I did the base camp to figure out the strengths and weaknesses. 

Sunday, I took on state 6 of the Zwift Camp. This meant the Elevation Evaluation route. While the route itself is only 15.3 miles, all of the climbing happens early. I did a warm up first to get the legs ready, then went on to tackle this route. 

It is just a steep grind for 2.2 miles. There is a short break in the middle, then it ramps up again to the finish. On climbs like this (or the climb portal), Zwift is nice enough to show a progress bar. This bar has a % of how far you have gone over the course of the climb. That is a very helpful tool for me, because I use it to just tell myself "you only have XX percent left, keep going".  Again, this ride was far from perfect, but I did everything in my power to stay ahead of my ghost pacer. 

I set a PR on The Grade KOM. Taking about 1:30 off my previous personal best. I literally just put my head down and pedaled. I only looked up to see the status bar and calculate how much misery I had left. Brutal climb, heavier rider, wrong gearing. Sore legs. Nice. 

The payoff is the stupid fast downhill on the back side. I crested the hill but I kept pedaling on the downhill to flush my legs out. This is another thing I am working on. I normally stop at the top of a climb and rest....just coasting. I try not to do this so I keep moving. The climb was done, but not the entire ride. I still had about 8 miles to go.

After the descent there are some rolling hills to the finish. Amazing how hard a small 1% climb can feel when your legs are torched from a nasty categorized climb. I pressed on, counting down the distance to go.  I set a PR on the woodland sprint, so I was feeling pretty confident. I wasn't able to ride with anyone, but I just tried to keep my speed up and keep pushing. I finished the route with another PR on the final Sasquatch sprint. And I was down under an hour on the route. 

This time I took nearly 3 minutes off of my time for the Evaluation. That is a pretty solid jump, and I will take it. Not only did I best my PR on the climb, but I was able to mash the final section and pull more time out. For me, this is a good indicator that I am progressing toward being a better and stronger rider all around. Fitness is increasing. Weight is still dropping. Mentality has it days, but more good than bad. Progress.

So, onto the other things happening. I am now signed up for 3 races. I am still on the waitlist for Barry Roubaix, but I did get into Lumberjack 100 and I signed up for Coast 2 Coast (only the 100) as well. So that will be a mountain bike century followed the next weekend by a gravel century. Just asking for trouble, lol. 

I will have a better schedule post in January, but with the introduction of the Offroad series I will be focusing more on mountain biking than gravel this year. Its where my heart longs to be, in the woods and on the single ribbon of dirt. 

There is still work to be done, but December has been my best month all year. Both distance and hours are solid. January will be better, but I am happy with how I am progressing. My riding buddy Tom is all moved and will be ready to ride soon. This will likely mean more outdoor rides and dragging the fatbike around. Will be good to mix it up and test the legs in the real world. I know I need more endurance, but all these things are building. This year wasn't great for me with 2 surgeries. But it will be worth it and I am looking forward to the challenge that 2025 presents.

Until then, keep the rubber side down and keep moving forward.