The morning started out cloudy and threatening to rain but it was unseasonably warm. By midday, the clouds broke and it looked like spring outside. It also looked really windy so a quick check of the weather showed a strong southeast wind. All these factors helped me decide to head to Bogus Basin to do my LT intervals. I know that once the slopes open, riding Bogus becomes much less appealing.

I headed out on Hill road as usual and with the aid of a strong headwind, I was able to get in a solid 20 minutes of tempo before turning on Bogus Basin Rd. I did a 5-minute warm-up interval on the prologue hill to get my body ready for what was to come. It actually felt good today. Not too much burn in the legs and the effort wasn’t hard to maintain. Then after the down-and-up past Corrals, I started my first real LT at the bottom of the switchbacks.

Feeling good, I had to restrain myself from going too hard, too early. I knew I wanted to do at least two intervals, so I didn’t want to kill myself on the first one. The wind was mostly at my back but would change to a crosswind as the road traversed the mountain. I finished the interval just before the Forest Service sign.

I turned around and headed downhill for recovery, but I had to stop for a pee break, so I didn’t make it that much further down. During the second interval, I managed to go past the mile-high marker—a cement barrier spray painted with “5280”—and was just getting into the trees. It was much colder up there and I was glad I brought a lot of clothes. At that elevation, there was even some old snow at the sides of the road!

The second interval felt harder than the first and as you can see from the graph, the power wasn’t as good. But it was still above my current FTP so I was happy with both of them and called it good. I turned around to head back down. The wind was really gusty up there and descending took a bit more attention than usual. I usually descend on the tops when training to avoid aggravating my neck problem, but today there were times I needed to get into the drops for stability.

Back on Hill Rd, I did another 20 minutes of tempo as I headed home. Even though my legs were thrashed at this point, it was fun. With the great tailwind, I was able to do 24-26 MPH all the way back to Eagle! Total ride was 2hrs 38mins with a TSS of 195.