A "36" Ride

Well, decided to give myself a little Christmas gift a day late.
I waited until late morning to ride and unfortunately, missed an opportunity to hook up with anyone else for my epic ride...then again, doing a solo "36" ride in the cold, grey wind makes it that much more special...

A ride like today's comes in the wake of either a very hard ride/race the day before or at the end of a tough block of training...IOW, I start the ride tired. Yesterday's ride with George and Danielle was the perfect set-up for a 36 ride today. I felt particularly good yesterday and always enjoy riding with them both, and it being Christmas day, not to mention Tuesday (the day I've been collecting lots of L4) I rode plenty of L4...and a little L5...in short, my legs were toasted this morning.

Granted, a real 36 ride is quite a bit more pleasant in that the actual route 36 butts against the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, Colorado and typically occurs in late Spring or early Autumn.
The road itself is probably the least beautiful I've ridden in Colorado (with the exception of 70...but, I was an idiot for riding it) despite the fact that I've encountered enough famous pro cyclists and triathletes on this route to "name drop" for a dozen blog entries...if you've any doubt as to whether Boulder is endurance athlete heaven, look closer at the participants page of any major race...go to your favorite athletes' website and you'll see that almost all will mention spending some, if not all their time training there.

36 is the gateway to almost every great ride starting or ending in Boulder. It's innocuous rollers meander North on the way out of town and pass by canyons that lead four to five thousand feet up to the Peak to Peak highway...these same rollers aren't nearly as friendly on the way home after having climbed 15,000+ feet vertically for 4-5 hrs. at altitude ranging from 5,300-10,000 ft. above sea level (read: especially difficult for people from Long Island)...the way home, the last 10 miles of the day, is when 36 becomes a monster...

Anyone that has ridden this unforgiving ribbon of asphalt from Lyons (where Tim DeBoom lives..I know...name dropped) back to Boulder with me knows what I mean by writing I went out for a 36 ride today...for upon turning South and back towards "home" with legs tired from this and often many other day's epic rides that preceded it that I put the screws to my legs and anyone else's that happens to be with me at the time...it is with searing pain in my legs, I drill it all the way back to the right hand turn on Broadway....my goal being to leave every last bit of my energy out on the road...quite simple, really.

This brings me back (circuitously, I'll admit) to my ride today. Without the luxury and simplicity of a "Big Thompson Ride" to set me up for self destruction on the inward 10 miles, I set out west from my house hard...I rode past the bike shop and headed up on "the Bike Shop Loop"...hard...an hour in, the legs were already starting to scream. Now, usually, in Boulder I'll gradually build up to the hard part after hours, but today, there was no time...I had to get up north, shatter my legs pretty soundly, then really start the pain east along 25A back towards Head of the Harbor, and eventually, once I headed south towards home, scatter my own entrails along the road until my legs were a two quivering cold branches.

When I reached the all too familiar intersection of Lakeland and Sunrise, I was so baked that I wasn't sure that the last 2.5 miles was even do-able. As if life could get any better, Dina suggested I shower and grab a nap before going out with her and the kids for the remainder of the day...life is so very good.