If I'm honest, it was disappointing....

I've been debating with myself whether or not to include this blog but the point is that we're a diverse group and there may be others out there feeling the same way.

Last Saturday I decided that Rach's advice on riding Mt Stromlo and Red Hill in daylight before training on them was an excellent idea and I would head off and give them a go. All keen and feeling confident because I'd had a couple of good commuter rides with a new compact cassette on board I headed off. I also took the advice on board that you should really drive the hills you are attempting for the first time so you have an idea of just what you're in for.

Arriving at Stromlo I started the drive up thinking, yep this looks ok. I figured I could get to 1/4-1/2 way up with a fair bit of effort, remembering of course that I'm coming back from a base level of fitness of zero! But as I progressed up the hill my spirits sank. There are some quite sharp turns further up that made my back ache just looking at them. I continued up to the KOM sign thinking the last 1/4 of the ride just got more intense. :(

I know I have to ride within my current limitations, it just sucks to be impatient.... So rather than waste the morning I went and did a couple of Yarralumla Loops, which I improved on so that was a bit encouraging.

I've wondered since if I should've just gotten on the bike and had a go, but if I'd gotten into trouble I could've wobbled into one of the tourist cars driving up. My core and back strength is still building, but it's slow.

So where to from here? More commuting as I can feel my back and core strengthing as I do it. Back to Yarralumla to test improvement and work from there. My debate on blogging this was that this is really just my issue but I remembered that a couple of the skillez girls were anxious on the downhill run on the Federation Mall circuit, so in comparison Mt Stromlo would seem out of reach for them too.

I want to keep working on this so any interested training companions are welcome and all advice on how to reach my new goal of 'Ride Mt Stromlo!' are welcome.

And I commuted to work yesterday in the ridiculous cold, so feeling a bit hardcore after that!


Cherrie.