Bigger and Steeper

The motivation just wasn't there for yesterday's ride. Maybe it was because I was still feeling the lagging effects of night shift. Maybe it was because I had a few other commitments for the day. Maybe it was simply that the planned route wasn't capturing my attention.

I headed out anyway. Sometimes these feeling disappear and the motivation reappears. Half an hour in I was working at the appropriate level, but for some reason I just wasn't keen about heading down to the Warburton highway. Why I don't know, but I had a simple solution. Change my route.

Once out of the Christmas Hills I decided to turn left at Yarra Glen instead of right. This was the best decision I could have made. The weather was perfect. High 20's, a nice breeze, hardly a cloud in the sky. It was exactly the sort of day you should enjoy riding along the Yarra Valley, before taking in the sites from up on Kinglake. Suddenly my motivation was back and I began enjoying my ride.

Now this did change the dynamics of the session somewhat. Instead of a mainly undulating course, it transformed into one big steep climb out of the Valley and up to the sights. Also the course would now take about an hour less than originally planned. That was okay, as long as I stuck to the top end of my intensity range. Which wasn't too hard with about a hour of climbing stuck in the middle.

Towards the end I felt perfectly hammered. My legs weren't too happy about the extra climbing, but I was happy with reaching 81km/hr on the descent. So much fun. Turned out to be a good ride in the end.

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