I'm committed now

Ok I paid my money, so now I'm committed to the 3 events on the right. We'll see what happens. Only 4 weeks until the first one now. Luckily that one is basically in my back yard, so I can train on big chunks of the course a head of time. This weekend I'll do a lot of climbing (up Honey Springs and then maybe half of the rest of the climbs), then next weekend a longer ride with medium hills, the following weekend a real long ride covering most of the century, then following week an easier ride, then the century...

It just better not rain on any of these weekends, or I'm going be screwed.

Training Sir

What kind of training????

Army Training Sir...

Just had that going through my head all day saturday on my training ride around here. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just ask any guy who went to high school in the mid 80's.

Chuckles like that help a lot to keep you going. The distract from the pains you inevitably feel after doing any physical activity for 3-4 hours.

Cycling Training Sir...

I was going to ride with the Trek group yesterday, they are starting their training series for the San Diego Century which is in May, so they are only at 25 miles today (wow I said only). But if I rode with them I would only really have time to do that milage since I would also have to add in travel time to get to the site of the ride and other inevitable delays.

So I chose to ride myself around here, hoping to do about 65 miles. Couple of loops near the lake, maybe once or twice on the SB Fwy, about 5 hours in the saddle, maybe 6 in total including pit stops, waterbottle refills, etc.

I actually only did 49.4 miles, but I'm glad i did ride here. At least I got twice the milage in. It was pretty cold and I now pretty much have come to the conclusion that I am not good in cold weather. I started at 9am and it was about 60 at that time. That isn't really that cold, but you have to bundle up for various reasons.

But whenever it has been cold I have not riden well. I usually end up going 1-1.5mph slower when it is cold out, vs. when it is warmer and sunny. Plus I usually go for longer distances when it is warmer. When I rode with the Trek group we mostly started at about 7:30am and I was always at the back for the first hour or two. But at the end 12-2pm I was always on the lead. I just pick up as it warms up.

It's not just a starting thing though, becuase when I ride in the afternoon, I am full power right out the door.

So I am a bit concerned about my ride in Solvang (which is about a hour North on Santa Barabara, but still on the Coast. It's going to be freaking cold there. I was looking at pictures of riders on their website and they were all pretty bundled up. I guess we'll see. I'll actually be in that area the week before on business, so I'll be able to get a better idea about the weather conditions, but I'm still a little (actually a lot) concerned.

So Far So Good

I've been able to get in a few rides since Christmas and everything seems to be going well so far. I've done Honey Springs twice now, which is a 50 mile round trip, so I'm optimistic. There are 3 rides I'm thinking about for this Spring. The first is Mar 1 which will actually go right by my house and up Honey Springs Road.

The others are linked to the right. I'm a bit worried about trying the Granfondo followed by the Solvang Century 2 weeks later, but I figure if I don't ride too much in between the 2 rides I should be able to complete the second.

This weekend I will try to go 60 miles around here. If I can do that I think my leg problems will be finally be behind me.

Now I just need to work on my speed.