Continous Output

After riding the trainer on Wed., and the single digit to below 0 temps we had earlier this week, I was more than ready to get outside on my bike.

Case in point:

Thursday, it was 19F outside, but I put on multiple layers and headed outdoors. I’ve been basically doing the same ride for multiple days in a row. I decided that I need to ride flat roads for a little while. Mountain biking is a lot of up and down, and when I ride the road, I usually ride up a canyon to the top of a mountain and ride back down it. It’s easy for me to keep my effort where it needs to be on a climb. Right now, I am only doing upper zone 2 since I am doing my base. After several hours on the bike, day in and day out, it actually takes quite a bit of effort to get my heart rate where it needs to be on a flat road, and to keep it steady. I also tend to struggle on road sections in mountain bike races, so I am trying to remedy that as well.

These photos are from Thursday, when the roads were frozen. Today, they just had a few wet spots.

Brrr.. it was NOT warm. (but it’s good for you to get out in less than perfect conditions)

After only 1.5 hours, my bottles were frozen. I couldn’t get a drop out of my second bottle! I started with hot water, and that failed. Sinjin suggested that I ride with my bottles upside down. I rode 4 hours the next day, and that definitely kept them in a liquid state for longer. I think putting some Elete in the bottles would really help the situation! SAALLLLT!

Today was 5 hours and about 80 miles. I love my new Suunto T6c. It rocks!

This is the only time of year that I get sore from riding because of the low intensity, high volume.  It made a huge difference in my season the past year, so I’m back at it again!

Two more weeks of long base miles, and then it’s on to more specific matters!