Two Wheel Blogs

Saturday's team ride was a little earlier than my schedule could accomodate, so I was left to ride solo around midday. I knew I needed to get at least 2 good hours in and also knew that my ride should include some good hill climbs. That made the decision quite simple, go west young man, go west. That I did and headed west on Clayton into the secret training grounds.

My list of climbs (in order) were:
- Orrville (South to North)
- Old Eatherton
- Ossenfort
- The Melrose twins
- Hawks Rest Drive
- Gredan Drive

Big week scheduled for this week. Will be on the bike every day and also hitting the weights. I did fairly well eating wise during vacation, but a few extra pounds did creep on, so tight dieting will also be in order. Hopefully, I'll pull the TT bike out for several 'fine-tuning' sessions and get it all ready to roll for next month's TT's in Hermann and St. Louis.

It's nice to be home and good to be mentally ready for some serious training efforts.

I put in a very solid 75 minute workout today. That got me 22 miles, but my average pace was certainly north of 18mph average that computes to. The traffic light stops crossing US98 most likely account for 2-3 minutes on each side and there are a couple of other traffic lights heading to my secret training area. While I was riding tempo, I really tried to keep the speed north of 20.5mph and for the most part had some really solid efforts and was quite pleased with how I felt during the tempo sessions. Overall, my legs seem to be coming around well and hopefully, I can pull some things together for the TT in Hermann in one month.

I finished out my week today in fine style. A bit over 90 minutes on my TT bike. Just a nice tempo pace most all of the way. There were simply too many people on the roads to do any real focused work on that bike.

The great weather this weekend got everyone out. In just that 90 minutes or so I saw bikes tandems, strollers, rollerblades, skateboards (both the kind with and without handles. Kid still use those?)... If it had wheels people were out in it or on it. Spring arrived this weekend in spirit if nothing else.

At one point in my ride I had a guy on a regular road bike do a 180 ahead of me and pace alongside. He asked if he could ride my wheel for a bit. Gotta respect someone who asks. I said I'd be glad for the company. He replied that he'd hang on as long as he could.

Today was scheduled to be an on-again-off-again storm day in Destin, so I checked the radar and suited up for a 2 hour ride in between storms. Riding in Destin isn't the easiest due to the heavily congested US 98 which serves as the main corridor east-west from Pensacola towards Panama City Beach and beyond. I've cobbled together enough back roads to make the journey somewhat safe, but there are times were riding US 98 are just unavoidable.

I don't remember a year that featured so unbelievably much unbelievably good riding weather. It's too bad this one has to end. I doubt we'll ever see the likes of this again. You know, what with global warming and all.

Really now, what of that? We might have had a couple of nasty hot days this year - like the day of the state TT - but that's about it. Aside from some rain this year hasn't been exactly a global warming showcase.