Out of Doors (day 2)

So far in the outdoor season, I have already flatted 50 feet from leaving the front door and dropped my chain twice. Hopefully these are the only kinks that need to be worked out as I train.

Today was the second day of riding outside so far this year. Yesterday we had a group of ten: Finn, Jake, Peter, me, Sean, Andrew, Bria, Mark, and then Sue and Patrick from the Mike's Bikes club. It was pretty easy until we turned home, I put the hammer down, I couldn't help it, doing some zone 4/LT intervals and sprints. 1:50 outdoors and a 40 minute session on the old trainer after I got inside. In TX I chatted with a guy named Rob who sang the praises of being honest about base miles: after every effort, he'd see cliffs, nice consistent drops in his heartrate. I've begun to see that happening since I got back to school. Endurance is where I need to focus, and so far it seems to be paying dividends. As for the sprint, that wasn't really a problem in yesterday's ride, 2/2.

Today was a leisurely 4 hours ride, 3:45 outside, 15 inside. avg hr 135 so that was spot on. I went out Old Dutch to the frontage, through Webster and then intsead of cutting down to Lonsdale, I took the long way back. 320th/70th street on the way back was well worth it, 6 miles of new pavement, washed light gray from the salt and winter, but perfect nontheless. No real hard efforts today, max hr of 162. When doing endurance work, for some reason I love riding into the wind, it forces one to go slow, to really work and focus on technique.

Speaking of technique, I've also gained some power from fiddling with my bike fit. I've raised the seat a good inch or so over the last month, and it's starting to feel really comfortable, I might need to go to a 120 stem, but we'll see. Arkansas is only 2.5 weeks away. wow. Should probably get back to school work and get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight (being a damn college kid and all).

get outside