Two Wheel Blogs

Good to be back home again. Business trip is done. It's a nice feeling.

No more business trips for at least a couple of weeks. At least not the kind I do for my job. There is some business I need to attend to down in Arkansas coming up.

When I got home from the airport today I really didn't think I would ride much, if at all. I was dragging, feeling fat and flat. Who wants to ride when you're feeling like that?

The weather outside today was windy and rain - not exactly an engraved invitation on a day you're feeling like crapola to begin with. I decided to hop on the trainer and slog out a few miles. I figured a short ride would put me back on the right track. You know, get the blood moving and set the right mood for a better session tomorrow when I'm feeling better.

I ended up covering about 30 miles without actually going anywhere. Watts were really decent considering the whole ride / workout was a painless experience. Hey, as tired and crusty as the rest of me felt I wasn't about to push it too hard.

A good workout on a great day. And it beat the hell out of working on a Monday afternoon.

How could I resist? A beautiful day. Full-on sun, temps in the mid-70's (I think I saw 26°C - perfect!)... a bit windy but hey, it's early March for goodness sakes.

Stats:

Road 
Total ride time: 2½ hours. 
TSS: 192 
NP: 0.90
Good, solid threshold stuff. Sweet spot all the way.

Yesterday's recovery ride was no doubt helpful. My legs felt fresh starting out. Twenty minutes in I could feel they weren't fresh. At about 45 minutes - right on schedule - suddenly all was right with the world and my legs felt great. Unfortunately within 30 minutes that feeling had vanished.

The last hour was a lot of things. Pleasant is not one of the words I'd use to describe it.

I figure I have about 750 TSS in the last 5 days and I'm starting to feel like one tired puppy. I can't wait to see how I feel in the morning.

I did it to myself again today. I went out just a little bit too lightly dressed for the weather. Honest to Pete it looked like a warm spring day out there; and as I headed out the door the sun felt good. I figured I had it about right - a little cool but not cold.

Boy was I wrong. It only took about 15 minutes before my feet started to get cold. I fought the good fight but fell just short of my goal of 2+ hours of threshold pace.

Like the title says, it must be the time of year. The temperatures look and feel warm but riding through it is a lot colder. I have ridden in much colder temperatures and not felt as cold as I did today. Lesson learned, add one more layer if it's only in the 40's but it looks like the 60's.

Just short of my 2 hour goal I lost the motivation. My feet were blocks of ice and my focus had shifted from riding well to just getting through it. I took the shortcut and headed for home.

Not a very good way to train for the Ouachita Challenge, eh?

And a bag of chips. Or maybe some socks.

I'm still thinking I might have to go do this race. The weather doesn't look all that good.

Getting up early to drive 100 miles to register so I can wait three hours to find out it's all been called on account of snow... Well that would not be a great way to spend my Sunday.

Now... if the race goes off as planned and the weather keeps my competition home... Wouldn't that improve this old goat's odds of winning a pair of socks or an inner tube?

Then again, the ones who do show up are most likely to be the ones who ride in weather like that all the time, the very same ones who would eat my lunch on a nice day too.

Decent weather today, though a bit cooler and a lot windier than yesterday. Word is the trails are still all sloppy. I didn't even consider it. A bit over an hour netted me just over 132 TSS on the day. That's over 300 TSS in the last two days.

Are my legs feeling it? Aw, yeah baby!

First off, get well Lynda. In case you haven't heard the news, MTB endurance racer, fellow performance manager beta tester and nominee for coolest mom on planet earth rode an additional 14 miles to finish a lap after crashing and shattering her collarbone at the 2007 Old Pueblo race.

And you thought you could endure pain.

Yes sir, it's good to be back in the saddle again. I got back from my most recent business trip today in the middle of the afternoon. Two full days of meetings from early in the morning to late last evening. Think I was in a motivated mood to plug myself back into the corporate pipeline when I got home? There were only 2 hours left in the day. I could use them to download email and maybe do a spreadsheet or powerpoint or something. Or I could use the rest of the afternoon to ride.

but trying.

I don't know who said that but I live by those words. If I don't know something won't work I'll just go ahead and try. Worst case, I fail. Well, worst case I get myself killed, but I don't usually try stuff like that. I'm not only 2 old 2 go slow but I'm 2 old 2 be that stupid.

Anyway, when I try something and fail it's an opportunity to learn something. It's an opportunity to learn:

1. it can't be done
2. I can't do it, or
3. I can't do it that way, so maybe I should try some other way

One thing I've been wanting to do lately is to install one of my SRMs on my Surly Karate Monkey. I really wanted - still want - to know how much power I'm putting out and how much TSS I'm accumulating out there in the woods. Estimating it is OK, and it appears I'm fairly accurate with my estimates judging by performances predicted by my Performance Manager chart; but still it's just an estimate. Why estimate power when you might be able to get real data?