Last couple days

On Tuesday I put in another 18 miles in the 'saddle'. It was a moderate intensity ride. Just a few days away from the hills, I didn't want to over do it after the 19 that I did on Monday.

I took Wednesday off, and then got back on the bike today. It was a very difficult ride. I had a bad headache that started in the afternoon, and my muscles just weren't consistently cooperating with me like they have been over the last 3 weeks, but I suppose every athlete has days like this where they need to just keep on pushing, and grind through it. At least I can say that I didn't give up, and kept on it until the end. It only ended up at 14 miles, which puts my week total up to 61 miles. Now I just need to put this into the past, not forgetting it - instead learning from it, and get mentally prepared for next workout. That's what is important. It was definately something that I have learned from, and I think it will help me in the long run.

Where I have been

Last Thursday it was stormy, but I decided to go for a ride anyways. About 5 miles into my ride it started to down pour and very windy. I just kept going though, and grinded out 18 good miles. I proceeded to take off Friday in preparation for my hard weekend ride.

After intially planning on doing a longer ride on Saturday, I was introduced to some good hills leading up to bluffs. The climbs were very hard and took everything I had in me to complete them. I felt proud of myself that I had it in me to finish the ride. I only ended up doing about 10 miles. The first bluff I climbed wasn't a terribly long ride up, but it gradually got steeper and steeper. I took the ride down in the high 20's, and moved on to the real substance of the ride. A long climb along the highway. It wasn't as steep as the bluff. Instead it was a lot longer, and more unforgiving. Up all the way. Once I finally got to the point where, in the future, I will turn to take on some more hills and valleys, I turned around, and went back down the hill. I feel that I could have done more, but I have come to a good understanding of what my limits are right now. Rather than push myself to hard to soon, I swallowed my pride and will live to fight another day.

I took Sunday off. Had another lovely weekend with a lovely woman.

Today, I rode on mostly flat land again. 19 quality miles today. Maintained around 17.5-18 MPH for most of the ride. Nothing much else to say about it. Just gotta keep on doing what I'm doing, train smart, eat right and I will improve.

Again

For the second straight day my bike computer failed me. About a mile into my ride, I look down, and notice that it isn't transmitting data. I don't know what is going on with that, but about 4-5 miles later it came back on. I did the same route as yesterday, so I ended up doing another 14 miles. I don't know if I am getting some kind of interference from something, but that would seem unlikely. Where I ride is sparsely populated, and it failed on me in a different spot each time. I will just have to see how it goes from here. Either way, I'm at almost 40 miles for the week. I'm planning on taking tomorrow and Friday off. I am shooting for a 20-25 mile ride on Thursday, and a 30-35 mile ride on Saturday. At this point I don't really care how fast I go, just that I get it done. I just need to get in the work, and over the next few years the improvements will come.

Technology

Technology failed me today on my ride, but thankfully I had already rode this route, so I knew how far it was. About 4 miles into my ride, my wireless bike computer stopped working. It was still on, and I could look at my historic data, but it wouldn't transmit. I don't know what the problem was, but with a few miles left in my ride it can back on. Hopefully it won't continue to do this. If it does I'll have to take it in to the bike shop and see what they think. I'm certainly not going to buy a new one since I just got this one a week and a half ago.

Anyways, I went 14 miles today. That puts over 90 miles, and 34 miles for this week. After reading a few articles I decided to use a lower gear with faster cadence (how fast I pedal). I was up around 100 rpm for the whole ride. I was able to maintain a faster overall speed, than I could with a higher gear and slow cadence. I'm sure sometime in the next few days that I will explain the 'scientific' stuff that I have read about the benefits and disadvantages of different cadences. But not right now, because it is time for me to eat.

Weekend

On Friday I didn't have a lot of time, so I made the most out of that time and did intervals on the bike for 7 miles. I didn't time the intervals, I just put it in a higher gear and worked hard until I couldn't maintain it. In the higher gears I was usually maintaining around 20-21 mph for several minutes at a time. On the lower resistance side of the intervals I was at around 16 mph. They really felt good, and it was definately a good workout that I will use again if I am strapped for time.

I took Saturday completely off from training to let my body recover from this past weeks activities. I got the opportunity to spend the weekend, from Friday night to Sunday early afternoon, with my girlfriend so overall it was a great, delightful weekend.

This afternoon after I got home I got ready for my planned longer ride. My goal was 20 miles. I didn't go out with any expectations of a certain MPH, but overall I was impressed, and I finished it with an average speed of 15.9 mph. I had to slow, almost stop a few times for traffic, and to go over railroad tracks, but other than that it was a smooth, uninterrupted ride. Those slow downs effected my time and mph a little bit, but at this point, it really doesn't matter. My legs felt fresh and strong after the rest day yesterday. My back and arms actually got tired before my legs, but I know that they will get stronger as I ride more and my form continues to improve.

Off the saddle

No biking today. The weather wasn't the greatest, but I planned on taking a day off anyway. I did some resistance training, ab work, and yoga instead. Did a upper body circuit, and only stretching for my legs - opting to let my legs recover and come back strong for my next ride. The last few days I have been learning a lot about cycling nutrition. It isn't much different than running, but the demands of each sport are unique from each other. My nutrition is good as far as a normal person goes, but it needs some work as far as an endurance athlete goes. I am going to start incorporating timing, and periodization to make my nutrition more complete. A solid nutrition plan will increase the effectiveness of my training plan exponentially.

Unexpected

My ride today was suppose to just be a short, "recovery" ride, before the longer ride that I had planned for tomorrow. About 3 miles into my ride, I started to feel the cleat on the bottom of my shoe started to feel loose in the clip. So I pulled over, and took a look at it. Low and behold there cleat was loose in the bottom of my shoe. So I had to make the slow trek back home with only one foot clipped in. The other foot was carefully placed on the side of the pedal that is like "normal" bike pedals. When I got home it took a little searching, but I eventually found the right tool to screw the screws back into my shoe. I suppose this was a good lesson. I should inspect eveything, not just my bike before riding.

I ended up going 13.5 miles today. I felt good and strong throughout, and even managed to hold 18-20 mph for a good portion of the ride, peaking at my new max speed high of 25.7. The weather was nice for a ride, though it was a little chilly when I rode through the shadows along the tree line. That puts me up to 56.3 for the week, and I still have another day left. I'm not exactly sure what I want to get out of tomorrow. I've had a good amount of milage already for this week - like everything else, I will look back on a ~60 mile week in a few weeks/months and laugh, but for right now it was what is in the best interest of me, and my body to get used to everything, rather than just jumping in and upping the milages too much too fast.

Not a cloud in the sky

Today, I went for another ride. The weather was absolutely pristine. I did another slow, foundation building ride of 14.2 miles in 56 minutes. My odometer now sits at 42.8 miles for this week - for right now my week goes from Saturday to Friday because of when I started. At some point I will probably get that straightened out, but for now it doesn't bother me. Again, my legs feel great, and I can already see and feel a good deal of progress.

The last few days I have been really focusing on getting down the right form, and technique. At first it didn't feel all that good, but it has steadily gotten better, and I am starting to do a lot of things that I had a little bit of trouble with ease. There is a lot to it. For as simple as it sounds to ride a bike, there certainly are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration. My pedaling technique is one thing that has seen improvement, but still needs a lot of work. I could try to sit here and explain what I am trying to do, but right now I don't know it well enough to explain it. I'm still learning, and will continue to learn for a long, long time.

Tomorrow I will undoubtedly push through the 50 mile goal that I set for myself. The next few days will really help me set the bar for next week.

Windy, but nice

This evening I was back in the saddle for a slow, longer ride. Tonight I rode for almost 55 minutes, and 13.5 miles. Overall I now sit at almost 2 hours, and 28.6 miles. Today I just wanted to keep a nice pace, and work on building up my base. I've learned a lot over the past few days. One important thing that I learned is that you don't have to go all out on every ride. In fact, there are barely any benefits to doing so. You don't always need to feel the lactic acid building up in your legs to make progress. I kept a fair decent speed throughout, and with the route I took I didn't have to stop all that much. Just once at a stop sign, and twice to walk over the railroad tracks. Other than that I had to take on one relatively small hill, and some nice corners as I worked my way out into the "country".

Only one group of people yelled at me today. They were obviously teenagers, and I didn't think anything of it. I didn't even acknowledge their presence, which is the best thing to do to people who do things like that, in my opinion. On Saturday someone threw something out of a SUV window at me. So I'm starting to get used to how a lot of people feel about cyclists in this part of the world. Heck, there are a lot of people that don't even feel cycling is a sport.

I am well on my way to acheiving my goal for this week. I set it low - at 50 miles. I want to see how my muscles react to this before I set any goals for next week, but from how I feel right now it will certainly be higher. My muscles are feeling great right now. For many reasons, flexibilty improvments, injury prevention, etc, I am going to incorporate a little more yoga into my stretching/relaxation/regeneration routines.

With the rising sun

This morning I went for my second ride. I went 8.1 miles this time. I have found, at this point, that the time it takes doesn't really matter, and is not totally accurate. Throughout the routes that I have taken the last two there have been quite a few places where I had to stop for traffic to pass where the wasted seconds can quickly add up. Once my stamina builds up to where I can take some longer rides, then I can get out of town further where there will be little to no stoppage. Then a good measure of time-distance can be captured. Also I am sure that this won't be an issue when I figure out all the nuances of the wireless computer on my bike. There are only 2 buttons on it and at least 10 different modes with different options. Another read through of the little manual is certainly warranted.

Today, I reached a new high speed. 24 mph. It felt good, and I sustained for as long as I could. It was towards the end of my ride, so I pushed myself to get it, and it was also into the wind. Granted these aren't hurricane winds, I was still fairly happy nonetheless. I'm sure that in a few weeks I'll look at that speed and laugh, but that is what I am suppose to do. That is what progression is all about.

The long winding road

There isn't much different about me now than seven miles and somewhere around 20 minutes ago, but something feels different. And so as one journey comes to a closure, another one begins.

My bike is a Trek 2000. I wasn't look to spend this much, but it was a deal that I simply could not refuse. The retail on it was around $1200, and I got it on sale for $859. It is not the best bike out their, but it is also not Trek's low end bike. It is somewhere in between, which is perfectly fine with me. After a couple years I can always get a better one as my skills and desire in the sport increase. I also got a pair of bike shorts, helmet, some chain lube, a lock, and a really nice pair of shoes at a really nice price. They are actually the same shoes that Lance Armstrong wore a few years ago for Le Tour. I got them for $150 off their retail price, because they don't make them anymore, and they were the last pair the store had. Oh, I also got a wireless computer set up on it. There are a lot of things that I could say about this bike and its components, but it probably wouldn't mean much unless you were into cycling, so I will refrain.

I understand that it is going to take a lot of hardwork and dedication to get good at this. The short seven miles today was an obvious indication that I have a long way to go before I can consider myself a good endurance athlete, but as long as I set myself achievable goals there is no reason that someday down the road I can't be whatever I want myself to be.

It feels as if I have found a second love, obviously behind that of my loving, beautiful girlfriend.