another cycle of base done

Another week of base done and man am I feeling it. The past three weeks have been 12, 11, 12 hours of training each with some building intensity. The intensity hasn’t been crazy, but definitely building each week. Saturday I went out for four hours and did my first significant climbing in a long time. Rode to Lookout and up. The first ride up Lookout every season is always a hard ride. I can’t ever really find my rhythm so it is a lot of stand, sit, stand, shift, sit, stand, shift type riding. The gears get a workout even if I don’t. I felt like I was riding pretty well though, given the time of the year. I started the climb with another rider and put about six minutes on him by the top. Not sure how good of a rider he was but he was hanging with me for the first part of the climb then just past the “M” really started to fall back. On Sunday I went out for about 2 ½ with a tempo effort of 50 minutes. It was hard to get flowing after the work from Saturday. The nice part was getting home and testing out the new furniture we bought. We got a new couch, love seat and recliner for the house. I must say the recliner will be getting a lot of solid work after long days on the bike. It was great to just sit back and not move. I put a blanket over myself and when Ade got home she said I looked like an old quadriplegic covered up and propped up on the recliner.

I’m looking forward to the recovery week this week before my last cycle of base. The legs will get recovered then I’ll ramp up some big miles again. If I can get the weight down over the next few weeks I’ll be feeling good for the upcoming season. Plus by the end of the last base phase I should be getting my new mountain bike. That will make the training for the season a little more fun. New bikes always help with the motivation, not sure why but they make riding fun.