Two Wheel Blogs

Well, I have 3 sons as of last Thursday. That is a wonderful thing. However, with every additional child, my riding time decreases incrementally. That is not a bad thing...I could ride more, but my priorities changes to make more time for these boys.

Today, my 2 older sons (2 and 4 years old) decided they wanted to ride their bikes while our newborn slept* with mom...can you imagine it; MY kids would be into riding. Well if you know me, it is no surprise.

* he has his days and nights mixed up big time!

I have been riding bikes competitively on and off for the last 24 years. When I first started racing (age 10), I raced BMX sanctioned events (NBL). When I turned 16 my racing days stopped, I still dabbled in BMX freestyle for a few years, until I discovered MTB riding when I was about 22. I did a fair amount of urban MTB/Trials riding and a bit of trail riding. Not until I turned 30 did I start competing again. It was at that time that the road started to appeal to me. I started doing a few road races, and fell in love with Time Trialing. Well, these days I am not much of a racer, although I do some MTB races on a rigid SS for fun once in a while. I got out of racing seriously (not that I was ever that serious) this year because as I said my priorities have really shifted towards the family time.

Yesterday was the official unofficial start of my easy week. It's time to recover and refresh a bit.

Not that I really feel like I need a refresher, I just don't really know when was the last week I took it easy. That fact alone tells me it's time. I also have a few other good reasons.

• I got a new pair of shoes - for my monkey. Some big fat ExiWolfs (ExiWolves?) for my 29er. These babies should cure at least some of my flat woes. I'll have to get them on and take 'em out for some fun, a kind of 'getting to know you' ride. They look like they will be a screaming fun ride.
• Business trip coming up. Hey, if I'm not riding then clearly I must be resting.
• Sore muscles in all the wrong places, and my back is barking at me again. I shouldn't have done it but I promised I'd turn over a landscape bed to get it ready for replanting. Cycling does little to prepare a body for manual labor. Manual labor aggravates back problems. Looking back, I would be better off today had I gone for a ride and hired someone else to do the digging.

So while I'm spending less time riding this week I think I'd better spend some time on that wattage post I promised a week or so ago.

At this point I'n not sure I did the right thing. On the one hand I was feeling pretty well toasted yesterday when I finished up my trail ride. I was certain I needed a day off. When I woke up this morning I was sure today should be a rest day - slow to get moving, a few aches, some stiffness, that sort of thing.

So I decided to take the day off the bike altogether. It would also give my banged up peg a chance to heal up a bit.

On the other hand, I'm looking at the weather for tomorrow and I'm seeing pure ca-ca - cooler with rain and thunder showers.

I don't get it. Why can't the weather get in synch with me?

Three day weekends are awesome. I highly recommend them to anyone, especially myself. In fact I personally think we should have two per week.

You probably already know this, but there are two different kinds of three day weekends. There is the kind that start on Friday, and the kind that start on Saturday. We just had one that started on Saturday. If I had my preference we would pass a law mandating all three day weekends to begin on Friday. Why? Because then I wouldn't have a Tuesday like I had today.

Conference calls, meetings, emails... all that office stuff that fills up the average office dweller's day, are turned up to 11 on Mondays. When Monday is called due to holiday the corporate world's reaction is to push all that stuff into Tuesday. That pushes Tuesday up past 11 and into uncharted territory.

Start the three days off on Friday and it's a completely different story. Thursday can get hectic but nobody's calling to move meetings up a day. Conference calls are canceled. It can wait until next week, OK? You bet.

When we get a Tuesday like the one I had today, I don't get to ride and I get to feeling all sorry for myself. Today would have been a good day for a ride too. The heat and humidity were chased out by a brief shower last night. I checked the weather forecast this AM and decided the day could not be much better for an easy spin to work out the effects of yesterday's killer trails session.

Tonight's workout on the trainer convinces me there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I will get used to training indoors again, and eventually my power will return.

This was not a real test by any means. The entire workout only lasted about 45 minutes. In my current condition that's enough to qualify as a "middle" kind of day - not really a good, hard workout, yet not light enough to be considered recovery.

In TSS terms this one scored about 56 points, which is a bit below my current CTL. It's also low enough to qualify as active recovery for me, regardless of the intensity of my ride. The good news is there were several minutes in the middle of the workout where I actually felt OK, like I belonged on top of the bike and turning the cranks was natural. It's the first I've felt that on the trainer since moving indoors, and it was a welcome feeling. Knowing that zone is still there and that I can get into it in the coming months is what will get me through the winter training season.