Realising you are not as fit as you used to be is a slightly depressing feeling. While in my case it's for all the right reasons - we have a new baby and time is limited - it's still a bit irritating when you can't do what you used to.
I headed out for a training ride last Sunday, aiming for a hill I hadn't been over in a while. The weather was blustery and overcast but it felt great to be out. After two hours I had crested the 850m high Großalm which climbs 450m from Altmunster on the Traunsee.
I felt good, over 60km were behind me and it was now just 50-odd kilometres home with a nice big descent to enjoy first.
Ahh, but how I forgot the two nuggetty climbs that pop up in the final 12km. A head wind had drained the legs a bit but now I had these two buggers to get over. By the last hill, a 12% rise out of St. Gilgen that I must have done dozens of times, I had blown. This wasn't right. A ride of this length used to be no problem, but now I had bonked, creeping over the top and freewheeling the last 2km down the other side to our village.
It sucked. I was never a great rider, but this was a fairly lame performance. The reasons? Well, despite regular jogs, running never replaces hours of bike riding. I'm not saying I want to change how things are right now, but sometimes I do miss being kick-ass fit on a bicycle.
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