After last week's solid showing (if I may say so myself), it was time to increase my distance once again (in sticking to my Training Plan). For this week the goal was to hit the 9-mile mark three times, which I figured wouldn't be a problem based on the 8.2 miles I made on my last ride.
I found the Crazy 8's route to be a good, non-repeating mix of ascents, descents and a variety of nice scenery (I'll post some pictures to prove it. Someday). So in order to reach the 9-mie threshold, I basically just added a curly-q toward the end of the ride, which would come up right after my assualt on Hell Hill. The best part of it was that I would actually get a little bit of downhill action on HH, which would be a nice change of pace!
As this ride progressed, I appeared to be on a record pace (I was riding at around 4:25 seconds per mile, which would be more than 20 seconds faster than my previous best). And then I ran into the ugliest, most evil curly-q you can imagine. OK, that might be overstating it a bit (I heard there are some pretty nasty curly-q's in some of the rougher areas of Dublin), but I wasn't really prepared. I faced what looked like an 85-degree incline -- I'm pretty sure I saw a parked car whose wheels weren't curbed sliding past me -- and it was a nasty slap in the face as I slooooowwwwly approached the 8-mile mark up this bastard. I think I even got passed by a 300-pound guy who was walking up the hill ... backwards.
Once I reached the top of this cruel joke, I was able to reap the rewards and made up some time with a nice downhill jaunt, which looped around and dropped my back off at the top of Hell Hill. I had built up some momentum and I was almost halfway up the final hill before I really had to start churning again.
All told, I made it home in one piece (woo-hoo! that's like 7 rides in a row with no road rash) and ended up with, once again, a new personal best for distance (9.14 miles) and pace (4:41/mile). I was way off my goal pace, but I had completed a ride that went beyond the traithlon's halfway point. Nice.
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