Will the cold ever stop?

Well the weather keeps staying the same, or in some ways getting worse. It is three weeks into the year and I haven’t been for a ride on my road bike outside since December 17. That pretty much sucks. I should be riding 3-4.5 hours outside at least once a week in order to get in shape for the races this year, however; with the snow, cold, snow, cold cycle we’ve been under it’s tough to motivate (or even ride) outside that long.

This week I put in a total of 8 hours, real limited compared to what I would like to do but between not being able to ride home this week because of other commitments and bad weather this weekend I’ll have to live with it. In the past I’ve been able to handle multiple 2-3 hour days on the trainer. This year I’m struggling with 1.5 hours. Part of it is the tedium that comes from years of having ridden the trainer, but more importantly this year I think is there has been limited chances to break up the trainer work. By the middle of the week the weather report for the weekend is always showing cold and snow which causes me to hit the stark realization by Wednesday that I’ll be inside again and no long rides. I did mange 2.5 hours outside in the cold and snow flurries yesterday. I rode my mountain bike so the shoes I was wearing didn’t work with my shoe covers. By the time I got home I really thought I had frost-bite on my toes. I took off my socks and placed my feet in front of the fireplace for about ½ hour before feeling returned. I guess next time I’ll switch pedals so I can wear shoes that work with shoe covers.

The mountain bike season is still a ways off, but I am starting to think about racing. I’ll probably race a few road races in March to help get in shape; this will really be important if I can’t start to ride longer. Most of my races are about 2-2.5 hours, but the Firecracker 50 will take 5-6 hours. To finish that I need to get in at least six rides of 5-6 between now and July 4 and probably 2 dozen rides in the 4 hour range. This is not so easy when juggling work and family as well but somehow I’ll get them in. Races can help with it, especially 2 hour road races with an hour of warm up and cool down, makes for a really hard day that probably is as tough as a 5-6 hour ride by myself.

Until the weather breaks I guess it will just be more hours in the basement. At least this week isn’t looking as crazy with work and I should be able to commute at least two days and maybe even three. I know it won’t be more than that since two days require me to drive for meetings. Hopefully between commuting and a break in the weather next weekend I can get in a 12-14 hour week of training.