Competition

There has been a nice side benefit of uploading rides and climbs to Strava – I think about my efforts every time I put my wheels on a known segment or climb. I am pushing myself harder up climbs in order to put up personal best times. This last week, I had a few. One was up Kruger and over Gibbs Cemetery. I hit a personal best on Wednesday by over a minute. I thought that this was quite a feat, especially when the best time I had I thought I had pushed hard. On Saturday, competition shows how it can impact performance as well. Saturday was the Reach the Beach ride. The century leg starts in Beaverton and finishes in Pacific City on the Oregon coast. Although I was not participating on the organized ride, my planned ride for the day put me on the same roads. I had already been up a portion of the climb earlier in my ride but I had done the Haugen Road at about the halfway point and was climbing up over Kruger and Gibbs to come home. I had riders in front of me at the start. I chased them down and about halfway up, two riders rolled around me. I thought, “not in my backyard.” So I jumped on their wheel and got over Gibbs with them. We talked on the way down as we dropped into Newberg. I then headed out North Valley. When I uploaded to Strava, I had beat my Kruger-Gibbs time by over a minute again. Wow! I was at 45 miles and 5K of climbing when I started the climb and I crushed my old time. Legs felt tired but a little competition motivates.


I am loving Strava.

STP only 8 weeks away.