Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Cold but good Riding

The past few days I have toughed it out and made it out for some time riding outside. After taking Saturday off the plan was to get in some time in the saddle and I knew I wouldn't be able to do it on the trainer. So outside it was.

On Sunday the temps weren't to bad. In the 30's with 10-20 mph winds with sun. I figured if I went out on the open road I would freeze with the wind so I decided to take the road bike to pioneers and climb some hills for a while. After a very long time spent getting ready and searching for a missing leg warmer which I never found I toughed it out in just shorts and headed out. After spinning the legs a bit and getting warmed up I felt really good in the park and was able to lay down some really good efforts and get moving. I ended up getting in 25 miles of riding and felt like doing more but had to leave to get ready for my sons b-ball game.

On Monday I had the day off from school so I was planning on going out again. It was a bit colder and no sun and still a missing leg warmer but again I toughed it out and got ready to leave. I was originally going to go to the park again but when I moved my road bike to get ready I noticed it had a flat tire. After a quick inspection I noticed some threads were showing. Wore it out on the trainer. So I hoped on the mountain bike and was gone. Being on the mountain bike I changed my plans and headed over to the rail trail to put out some hard efforts. Ride went good until I turned around to head back towards home. I'm usually pretty good about planning my routes with the wind so that on my way out when I'm fresh I ride into it and then I have it at my back to get home especially now that it is colder. I wasn't paying attention and when I turned around it got a lot colder and the wind had picked up from the 10 mph to about 20-25. It was a tough and really cold ride for me on the way home but still another good 1 1/2 hour day riding and feeling good on the bike and not being on the trainer.

Tonight is the usual Flatwater Cycling Team ride. The only people that made it out where me and Sean. After we met up we went for some dusk and night riding again on the rail trail. We thought about hitting up the single track but it was way to wet. We carried a good pace on the trail and again my legs felt awesome. It's nice to have them back. We did see a cool thing tonight as we were heading outside of town in the cornfield next to the trail we saw a couple of deer and which isn't a big deal and happens all the time but as we rode a little farther we noticed a few more and then a few more and then we saw a flock (?) of about 20 to 30 of them. I've never seen that many at a time and they were all over the place and kept crossing the trail in front of us. Pretty cool to see. After we rode about an hour on the rail trail we headed back towards town and I stopped by Seans to pick up my new team jacket and then headed home. When I got home I clocked a little over 2 hours of riding and a very good average heart rate and a load of calories burned. Very good ride. I got pretty cold by the end but still very good.

Tomorrow is an off day and then another team ride on Thursday when it's a bit warmer(low 50's). I also need to add a big congrats to friend and teammate Ryan on the birth of his new daughter. Later.

Harp

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Thanks man. Glad to see you're putting some good miles in outdoors. Looks like the cold is coming back.

Bluenoser said...

Wow, shorts in the 30's. I've been told that one is called a deer, two would be a couple or a pair, three may be a family but any more than that would be a herd. And hell on a garden.

-B