After the long ride on Tuesday, I basically kept my rides fairly short. I continued to work on the garden and did some bike work, so today I was ready for a good road ride. Ted and I drove to Lucky Peak so we would meet up with our the Intermountain Orthopaedics’ ride to Idaho City. We planned it this way to avoid all the “junk miles” riding through town and on the Greenbelt.

The club passed us at a good clip and I probably didn’t turn around fast enough, thinking I could easily catch. But with the headwind, there was a definite advantage to the group so I was off the back slowing gaining the whole time up Hilltop. By the top, I caught all but a handful of riders, including Ted. He was smart and accelerated right up to them at the bottom of the hill. For me, I usually need a few minutes before I can really hammer so I eased into my threshold. Unfortunately, that meant I basically did a 19-minute uphill time trial, all by myself. We regrouped at the top and then we headed towards Idaho City. After the downhill, we had about 8 in our group. We rotated well but a few people either dropped off or turned around early so we were down to four of us for most of the way to Idaho City. There was a headwind but we had a smooth rotation going keeping our pace pretty high. We sprinted for the town line in Idaho City and Ted won that. We rode right through town up to Mores Creek summit. Ted didn’t go all the way to the top since he had his small cogset. Climbing felt hard, and I could feel the altitude. Mores Creek Summit is over 6000 feet.

We turned around and headed back. We stopped at Idaho City to refill our water bottles and then we rode tempo back to Boise. The wind must have shifted because we had another headwind. But it wasn’t too bad but by the time we got to Hilltop my legs were toast and I basically was in survival mode. I had delusions of grandeur that I’d push it up the last hill but I was happy to just keep 270 watts up it. The ride ended up being 87 miles in four and quarter hours. We were both glad we drove to Lucky Peak instead of riding out all the way from Eagle! Before we headed home we jumped in the water to give our legs an “ice bath”. This is a technique Heather learned at the Olympic Training Center. After a hard ride, you soak your legs in really cold water for 10 minutes. It supposedly constricts all your blood vessels which helps flush out all the bad byproducts from the workout. I haven’t seen any controlled studies to prove this helps recovery or not, but many people swear by it. The trick is the water has to be really cold. If anything, it does feel good…in a sadomasochistic way.