It was tough, painful but worth it.
We had a pretty big group show up at CVS but only 4 of us decided to do the Jasmin Hill route. The others road a less hilly route. So Alan, Richard, Chad and myself made our way to Elmore County to tackle the hills near the Blueridge community.
This was Richard's first time and from the looks of it, it kicked his butt. But it kicked all of our butts, except Chad's. He is an animal and has more power in one of his legs than all of us combined. Still, it was aood time and we actually had a few laughs along the way.
We were almost to the turnaround point when my sinuses started killing me. My right eye felt like it was the size of a softball. So I told the group I would turnaround and wait for them at the stop sign. Well, Alan was having stomach issues and was already way behind us. As I was heading back to wait on Richard and Chad, I caught up with Alan, and we waited at the intersection for the other two.
Even though my sinuses were hurting, I knew I was better off waiting at the stop sign and venture down that road of pain and suffering that would show it's ugly teeth to Chad and Richard in the next 5 miles. The actual turnaround point is about 1 mile of straight up climbing. It is absolutely brutal and will make the toughest cyclist want to curl up in the fetal position cause it hurts so bad.
Once Chad and Richard returned, I could see it all over their faces. Those eugly teeth took a bite out of both of them and it hurt. But they did it and will be that much stronger for doing it. Once they caught their breathy, we headed back.
Overall, I felt pretty decent on the climbs, just a little congestion was making it tough to breathe when the roads got steep. At theend of the morning, we had about 3 1/2 hours on the bike. I think that route has about 1750 ft. of climbing so we all got our work out.
After the bike ride, the kids were wanting to go swimming so we headed to the pool. Now that was nice!
Got a 2.25 mile run in on Monday and have a swim scheduled with James on Wednesday... triathlon training is starting to kick in... and I already hurt!
