If it's Thursday it must be "hill day"

I took Wednesday as a rest day, man o' man did I feel that 5 mile ride up my "imaginary" hills during my Monday workout.

The picture to the left is of a hill in Ireland that we were in the process of riding up, when "someone" got a bright idea that we should stop and take a picture of what we had just ridden up, unfortunately once we stopped we could not get going again and ended up walking the rest of the way up the hill. Lesson learned, never stop in the middle of riding up a hill....Don!

So today I was raring to go and started by riding 16 miles at a moderate pace, about 15.5 and then cranked the tension down to 5 and rode for another 5 "hilly" miles. That was a great workout. I made sure to drink my tomato juice and had some of my "electrolyte" jelly bellies to help with my recovery. I'll be able to tell if it worked tomorrow morning.To bad they don't make dark chocolate peanut M&M electrolytes, cause if they did I would be in bigggggg trouble!

I'm really missing my bike with these nice days and wish I could be outside riding, but I had to ship it off yesterday. My journey is close at hand!!

The Hills Are Alive....

The past three days I have been riding on my wind trainer and incorporating "hills" into my workouts. Sunday I cranked up the tension to 5 and road for 3 miles, this is my version of "hills" then road an additional 12 miles at an average mile per hour of 15.5 for a total of 15 miles. That will make you legs burn for sure. Then on Monday I did a fast workout and road 16 miles in 60 minutes.

Today during my workout I again visited the "hills" and cranked up the tension alternating between 5 and 7 for a total of 5 miles followed by 12 miles at an average mile per hour of 16 for a total of 17 miles .

I'm still keeping my mileage low as outlined in our training schedule. It's hard to follow the low mileage especially now when the weather's been so nice for the last three days, but I have to remind myself that I'll be out on the road with my bike soon enough!

It's A Beautiful Morning...

What a perfect day for riding, as long as you get out early. Today was sunny and very little wind kicking up as I got out on the road about 10:00. By 11:30 it was another story, still sunny and warm but the wind was back as so was the dust, dirt and grass clippings! Needless to say I was reaching for my eye drops which I now carry with me in my CamelBak.

What I really need is to wear goggles so nothing gets blown into my eyes. Wonder if people would look at me funny if I cycled with my ski goggles on??? Yeah, your right maybe that's a bit extreme.

Despite the swirling dust and dirt I rode 40.5 miles today at 14.8 mph. It was an outstanding day to be out riding!

Rest Day

Woohoo, a rest day from riding. I did ride a short 13 miles last night on my wind trainer but again it was a fast ride so those type of rides take a lot out of your legs...well at least they do my legs! Bring on the compression socks!!

The rest of my training I'll work on improving my ability to climb. I'll do this by increasing the tension on my wind trainer and work on maintaining a smooth peddling cadence at a level of 6 to 10 miles per hour for at least 10 miles. My goal is to build up my leg strength so that I will be able to ride up the 5 to 7 mile long mountain passes that I know are located in Arizona and New Mexico, this is the portion of the ride that goes through the Rockies.

Today I will be working in the yard and around the house to get some of those items off of my "To Do" list. As long as that list gets shorter and not longer I'm a happy camper. So I'm off to the next item on my list.

Enjoy the sunshine and have a great day.

First "Taper Down" Day

I rode for an hour today and have to admit I am feeling a bit guilty for only riding for 60 minutes. To add to my guilt, I rode inside on my wind trainer. But I rode 16.5 miles in that 60 minute period which is a good pace for me.

I tell myself that the shorter rides are good because I still have lots of little things on my "To Do" list that need to be taken care of before heading off to California. So for now I'll be "ramping" up the time I spend running errands, working in the yard and getting the rest of my gear together and less time on the bike.

As my Mom used to say..."and it will all work out in the end."

Long Rides Accomplished

After my windy and gritty ride of Thursday I took Friday off to give my legs a rest and hit the roads hard and fast on Saturday. The weather was perfect and I found myself out in the west end riding a couple of "less traveled" country roads. I road for 70 miles at an average speed of 15.4 miles per hour. Yes it was a very good day indeed.

On one of my "pit" stops I even ran into a friend and supporter of my ride...Bryan it was great to talk with you!

Sunday was an easy day of riding, out again in the west end for 46 miles. Thanks Bob for the company! It was another beautiful day for riding. While I was out training, Don was out walking the puppies, thank you so much for that!!! :)

For the week I road a total of 246 miles. All the miles were outside except for the 23 I road on my wind trainer on Thursday. I have reached the highest mileage on my training schedule and will now begin to taper off on the miles I ride until I leave. I can honestly say I am beginning to see the light at the end of the "road" and I'm ready to ride on some new roads and see new sights!

Windy Day For Training

A lot more riding to do before I leave on my cross country cycling tour. Today was the windiest day I have ever ridden, except for our trip to Ireland, but then we had to contend with wind and rain. Today it was just the wind, the pollen and flying dirt. After 37 miles I decided to take my ride home and hop on my wind trainer to complete my 60 mile ride.

Greeting me as I came through the door were my two best buddies! Wondering where I had been. As I rode my last 23 miles on my wind trainer they kept me company as they slept on the floor.

All in all a very good day of riding! Heck any day is a good day for riding. So here's to my next day of training, may the wind be at my back and not blowing me off the road.

Keep on peddling and happy cycling!

April and Still Training

April is here and I have four weeks of training left. This month will be great for riding outside as the weather gets warmer and the days are longer. I'll be taking advantage of that by getting out and taking longer rides.

In the first two weekends of April, I've already been able to get a 50 mile and a 60 mile ride in. Now I need to ride back to back days of at least 70 and 60 miles. So there is my goal for the month of April.

Hope you have as much fun as I do in April! :)

Chris