Hills! Hills! Hills! I love Wales!

Well I asked the people that live here to give me a hilly route.  I suck at climbing, the main reason is that I am 6 feet 3 inches big, like linebacker big!  No I am not going to post any pictures yet, I have another 5 months to lose about 35lbs.  Now mind you I used to be 360lbs and I am down to 235.  Looking at the cyclists in the Giro and Tour of California, where you can see their hip bones through their cycling clothes, I have a long way to go.

Wales is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been, the coast line is stunning and hilly.  Dragging my body up 12% - 17% hills really hurt.  They never warn you that you are about to climb 12%, they just warn you going down.  It was relentless, up-hill, down hill, followed by up-hill, each hill averaging form 8%-17%, from 400m - 5km.  After about 100km of this, I had enough.  It was like doing leg presses for over four hours.  The down hills were fast (65km/hr), which was just enough time to catch your breath and start climbing again.  I get the feeling that the people here had a good laugh when they gave me this route.  Some of the houses were just beautiful, and I just had to stop to take come pictures (at least that is how I am justifying to my self, basically I could not breathe.  :0) )

I had a wonderful experience of swallowing a bug, it went right down the old pie hole.  I grabbed a handful of brakes and started vomiting, for a few minutes.  I think I could still feel it wriggling in my throat.  Damn!

There is this down call Fishguard, really beautiful, except when you try to leave, 15 minutes, 10%, 12%, followed by 17%, then 20%.  All this spinning crap I coach my athletes, let them try it with 40lbs of bricks on their back, see how fast they spin. Hah!! :0)

The secret to climbing, is to lightest you can be and still be healthy.   That old strength to weight ratio.  Today, I will do a small 3 hour ride on the trainer, doing some technique work, and go to the gym and do some leg presses for 6 hours.  That should help my climbing.  :0)

For me right now, the challenge is to cut enough calories to lose weight, but still eat enough to support the training.  I am getting a bit concerned that I have not been able to do a 15hour ride yet.  This weekend I think I will be planning an epic ride!