Out of my comfort zone.

On Saturday 4th Feb, I joined Lead Out Cycling for my first hilly ride. It was definitely a milestone for me as I haven't ridden in a group in about 3-4 years. I was so out of my comfort zone and it has become very evident why I haven't been finishing my past events at a reasonable time.


We met at The Basin for a 7am departure. I arrived early to set up my bike etc and we then congregated around the coaches to sort out which group we would be placed in. There was no second guessing which group I belonged to - the bottom one. My aim for the next 12 months is to improve and move to the top of the bottom group or event graduate to the middle one.


The warm up was the climb up 1-in-20. Because we were riding in the group, I actually did my 3rd best time of 29.40 (at 70kg) where as the other 2 times was when I weighed close to 60kg or even less. It was the first time where I was totally out of breath when I reached the top in a very long time.


We then headed towards Devil's elbow way and headed up Churchill Drive and then One Tree Hill Rd. It was the climb up Church Hill which I dropped to the back as the coach (Mark) pointed out that I needed to hold my core and not worry about pace for the moment. We then headed to Sherbrook Rd and came up The Crescent and headed to Sky High. I found the ride up The Crescent soul destroying and actually had a bit of help up, I didn't need it but it was a welcome relief on the legs.

The ride up to SkyHigh was challenging as always, small steep climbs felt like they went on forever but I knew that this was one of the last climbs for the day. We stopped at Sky High for a small break for photos and then it was a descent down 1-in-20.

Always improving!

Good news is that my descents have improved and I achieved another PB on the 1-in-20 descents. I was completely washed out at the end of that ride. I was completely thrown out of my comfort zone. My legs are still throbbing 2 days after the ride and yet to fully recover. I can see the benefits of training with a cycling specific coaching group and the decision to join Lead Out was definitely a big tick in my life!