The 100th Alp

Was excited for this when I finished my 50th within the first year. But, I got distracted at times with Academy, World's, and other goals. I even went a whole month without a climb! Now, this is not too monumental. A few guys have 200 and even 300. I'm not on a smart trainer either, so I'm not using tiny gears the whole way up. What really took the cake was about a week ago, I saw a 78 year old man does this route every day as his exercise. Daily!

I thought about a super light weight ride up the Alp but then it would be on private and I want others to see that this is something they can do too. I think I will tire of Ventoux soon. On the Alp, I always check my time at the turn at 10. That's the half-way point in time roughly. I judge my time based on that. With Ventoux, it's the time to the 9km stone or about half the time to the Reynard arch.

I've done a lot of workouts on the Alp. It means I'm in for over an hour and I won't back down. Only once recently, I remember being too tired to go past the first ten minutes. I actually felt guilt for turning around and quitting. But, I have had over-training issues before, so I have to let my body be the boss sometimes.

I rode the Alp at least 20 times picking one section to race all out. A lot of them were before the Tarmac bike too. I still hold a bunch of them. Dare I check? It just isn't my goal right now. For a time of several months, I held every single section record (because who else would be crazy enough to sprint each section one by one?)

Today is August 5th 2020. The Alp was released on March 29 2018. So. that's not even once a week but I made it. There will never be a Ventoux 100 or even 50 in my thinking. Officially, Ventoux will be released on August 10 but I have 5 already and probably a sixth this Sunday. 

For not being a climber, I have fallen in love with the Alp scenery and its 21 turns. Thanks Zwift and everyone who has followed my saga for a while. What's next? World's prep mostly. Less than 50 days to go. Serious training starts four weeks out. But doing a short time trial and then the Alp today are all part of the road to defend the title. Dig, dig, dig. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.