Smiling at Columbia

On Sunday I rode the Columbia bike course with swimming extraordinaire Bryan Frank. I immediately got a taste of just how hilly it is. In fact, there really is no "flat" portion of this course. It undulates from transition to transition.... WHICH IS AWESOME. I was sitting in my saddle and cruising up the hills like they were nothing, barely breathing when I got to the top of each. I needed to stand for half of one, but that was definitely the steepest of them all. Toward the end I put forth a 2 mile sprint to see what my body had and I was pushing the 23s on a false flat. It reminds me a lot of Schaefer Road, where I've spent so much time doing hill work.


Again, just like with Du Nats, I rode the course with a feeling of pure excitement rather than dread. Last year, I'd sigh and resign myself to the fact that I HAD to do a hilly course. Now however, I saw the hills and couldn't help but smile. Hills excite me now. And now I'm even more excited about Columbia. This coming weekend I'll ride the course again and follow it with the run course.

Yesterday I went to the pool and swam 3x500s at race pace. Good and bad results... I managed to keep the same pace all throughout, BUT I felt pretty tired at the end. It WAS race pace, but still. Ran a solid 9 or so on the trails with tha BOYZ in the afternoon, faster than usual but no problem for me.