Fitness

This time of the year major strides can be made in fitness in short periods of time. Today I rode up Lookout (pretty much my fitness test climb), knocked 2 minutes off my time from 4 weeks ago. Not my fastest time ever up the climb, but respectable, especially coming towards the end of a big 3 week training cycle. 15 hours each week the past 2 weeks and on track for a 3rd 15 hour week in a row. This is about as much as I ever do, so clocking a fast time on Lookout 38 hours into a 45 hour cycle is pretty good.

Maybe we'll see what Saturday brings to really test the legs.

Long rides, snow and wind

In the past week I have finally gotten in some solid miles on the bike. Last Wednesday I put in 4.5 hours with good climbing and steady effort. Saturday I snuck in 2.5 and Sunday was 3 hours, but a hard 3 hours. The weather forecast was for lite snow until 2:00pm, when there was no snow for a few hours at noon I figured I was safe. Took out the road bike and started riding, after about 45 minutes a few flurries but not enough to cause me to turn around. After about 1.5 hours it started snowing, and I mean hard. I was at least an hour from home and the snow was coming down, roads getting wet and not ideal riding conditions.

I did have lots of wet weather gear with me so I didn't get cold or wet and rode through snow for about an hour. Finally it let up and I figured I'd sneak in a few more miles. This turned into a bad choice as I ended up flatting and having to change a tire in the cold just as it was starting to snow again. Ended up riding for 3 hours with about 1.5 of it in some level of snow. Hopefully the hard work yesterday will pay off in races this year.

Today I went out with the intention of riding for 4-5 hours after work (I left early since it was/is a holiday and I was technically "off"). Headed out to Golden to ride Lookout mountain with a fierce wind coming from the west. I averaged 12 mph out to Golden and started out Lookout, climbed for about 15 minutes before turning around. I was literally scared I would be blown off the road with the wind. Found out on the news wind gusts were up to 50mph in that part of town. I still managed to ride for 4 hours, just mostly on flat roads with a good cross or tail wind.

These rides should help come the race season and at least make me feel like I'm HTFU.

Dreams

I keep having a strange dream, I'm on my road bike and the handle bars are shifting around. One hard yank on the brake hoods and the bars go back into place.

I wish I knew what this dream was trying to tell me, at least I checked the stem and everything is good.

Ice and Cold = 3 hour ride

The weather has been a little rough for riding, but when I have any choice a ride outside, even in the cold/ice/snow beats the trainer. Yesterday I headed east of Denver on the Orbea for 2 hours, it was cold and windy, but the roads were clear and the ride was good. For a 2 hour road ride on the mountain bike the Orbea felt great. Thus far the only downer of the bike is all of its miles have been paved. Hopefully the weather will let up enough so that I can give it a proper ride in the dirt. Once that happens I'll give a full review, until then I'll leave you with smooth and light.

Today I wanted a 3 hour ride, so figured the road bike was the ticket. Bad choice by me to head south as I hit lots of ice (maybe since it was 12 when I left I should have known). Didn't get in the hard efforts I wanted but it was still a good ride. Yea, I had to go slow on the ice sections but a few minutes of slow riding beats 1.5 hours on the trainer.

I'm off to the east coast tomorrow, catch you later.