Hell Week Wrap

The morning rain and amazingly powerful winds kept me off the bike on the final official day of Hell Week 2010. The winds are steady at 20-30 mph with gusts above 40 mph making it to unsafe in my mind to go out and attempt a ride.

All in all I'm very pleased with Hell Week. I set a very lofty goal for myself coming into the week (850 miles) and while I did not reach the goal I did complete an amazing amount of mileage in a single week. I felt a lot better than I expected and had strength for climbs and attacks that I never anticipated. Even in the closing miles of our longest days I still had the energy to sprint and snap up the steep hills coming into town, which showed a great improvement throughout the week. Also of note, my heart rate improved dramatically throughout the week and I found myself able to summit long ascents without sky rocketing my heart rate. This proved very useful and also let me know my fitness was improving by the day.

Finally, the Ridley Damocles frame set was amazing over the full week. The geometry was sharp without being nervous and it responded very well on all of the climbs. The carbon also provided enough damping to keep me fresh throughout the week, but never felt flexible or weak when I needed to put down power. The roads here are primarily chip & seal and would normally prove tough on hands and arms, but instead I came off the bike feeling good each day. The Bontrager wheels and Tufo S33 tires also worked great and held up perfectly over rough roads, cattle guards and every variety of road hazard you can imagine.

I am looking forward to the rest of my 2010 cycling year and hope to have a strong season on the bike.

Totals:
Mileage: 638.61 miles
Elevation Gain: 36,469 feet
Saddle Time: 36 hours, 53 minutes
Calories: 34,876 (according to Garmin)