Ride 6 December First

Start and Finish at Pedaya Gas Station
Totals:  103 KM
              1985 Meters of  Climbing

Dedicated to Shomron and Meirav 

This is the last ride before our race, next Friday, which no doubt will be quite challenging.  Though it is a 150 KM race, only the middle section, which is fifty kilometers of climbing, is the actual race.  This will also be my first road race since the 1980's. 

I made it to the gas station on time (I was even early) and saw the sky in the Jerusalem Hills turn a dark red.  Though we were beginning the ride at about 6:15 a.m., and it's December, it was already becoming warm and I decided to ride with only a long-sleeved EMS hiking shirt under my bike jersey.

We rolled out and started heading towards the Jerusalem Hills.  We would be climbing the same hill that I did last week on my own, and this would be my third time doing this on a road bike.  I was finally beginning to understand the pace of this hill, and knowing what to expect was comforting.

I like how our group warms-up for it is so different from how I tend to ride when I  am on my own.  I give myself about five minutes, and then slowly amp up the speed.  We spend a good half-hour cruising, and even when we hit the first series of hills, keep the pace at a minimum.  My heart certainly seems happier doing it this way.

When we begin to climb up Tzuba, the same steep hill that forces me off my seat and onto the pedals, I quickly discovered that I had almost no fatigue in my legs.  I had ridden nearly every day last week, but I had carefully monitored my workouts.  Oh wise moves, this was just what I was hoping for.  Several of the stronger riders are not here and there are just a few who really love to climb in our group today.  That's okay, and as I later discover, David, our coach, is toning his training down (he monitors himself by power output, and Danny is tired from the strenuous ride he did the day before).  The pace that David chooses, is pretty close to my top end ability and though I am at times breathing fairly hard, I find that I am able to recover when the gradient levels out a bit.  Thus, the three of us stay together on this long climb pushing each other at what I consider to be a difficult pace, though for them, perhaps not as hard. 

A lot of this ride got me thinking about why I stopped racing, and in the past, beyond the issues that I had physically (back problems from lack of stretching),  I think it was my over competitive nature in the end run.  Though I am still very competitive as an older athlete, I am finding that I am much more accepting, much more thankful for just having the ability to get up these hills as I am.  I am thankful for having the desire as well, for that too is not a given. I am happy that my wife allows me to spend this time out of the house on the bike accepting both my love and the inherent dangers of this sport.

We are moving at a good clip and David, a former Israeli champion who coached the National Team here and is in very good shape, is not easy to shadow even when he's not pushing it to the max.  About the 3/4 of the way up, there is a rotary which we enter and then head back down the hill getting far behind our slower riders who are still making their way up.  A team of very competitive racers are coming up at this time too, and I marvel at the pace that they are keeping.  We do a large chunk of this climb again, meet the rest of the group at the rotary, and then continue onwards and upwards.  After a few screaming descents, we head on a rolling road that takes us by a water purification plant.  This plant services the waste water that used to run directly into Nachal Sorek.  I have mountain biked parallel to this stream many times and can attest that it is still incredibly smelly and polluted.  The stench of Sorek fills the air even from the road, and I continue to wonder that with such a small country, with so many talented and able people, how it is possible to have this level of pollution in such a beautiful area?  This is one of the truly splendid forests in Israel too and one is surrounded by large mountains on either side with verdant trees casting long shadows on the road.  Trails for both biking and hiking abound in this area.  This area does not deserve a Nachal Sorek running right through it.  No area deserves this.

The rolling hills come to an end.  There is one more hill before a brief break back at Nes Harim.  I am already thinking of my brownie and coffee.  Again, the pace up the hill is to me, almost perfect.  It is hard enough to test me, but I am not approaching that anaerobic threshold zone that tests all athletes in long distance sports of incline.  By the top, it is again just the three of us as we arrive at the terminus and then gently turn around to head to the coffee.  I got a coffee and three brownies that I passed out to fellow riders.  I found more joy in giving food away than I did in eating it today (I had less than 1/2 of a piece).  I think most of the time I find more joy in giving than I do in taking not because I am some altruistic do gooder, but because I like the feeling I get from giving.  I wish I created more opportunities in my life to do this, and credit my wife for helping me to cultivate this desire as well.  She truly takes the time to give to others and does small and natural acts of kindness that are so effortless for her.  I think it is important to do acts of kindness on a grand scale, if you can, but I think it is much more important to them on smaller ones that most of us are limited to in the end run.  No, giving a piece of brownie is not a true act of kindness, of course I know that, but this is what got me thinking about this.  Short and sweet.

After our food stop, we re-trace our route and head back over the same terrain.  I don't generally like such rides, for part of the reason I ride is to be in nature and enjoy the diverse scenery.  However, and for me there is always the perpetual "however," one could argue that if you look carefully and thoughtfully enough, you will see how a change of direction changes all that you had previously seen.  In fact, it did and as we enter the steepest part of the descent, I feel as if I am in a totally different area. 

Back at my car I once again reflect on a long weekend ride and the ever present feeling I have of thanks.  I think it will be fun, challenging, and perhaps a bit nerve-wracking to enter this race on Friday with upwards of 400 people who are going to be involved.  I have already started ruminating on the switchbacks (I saw photos of these) that await me and the long, steep (I am hearing over 20% in some places) climbs that I will have to address.  I can only hope that I feel as I did today and that I have the proper mentality, as I did today, to approach this.