I have waffle butt.

Today was another beautiful day for a ride. You can see where I went on the map to the right. I guess everybody is up at GWN because I only saw a couple of other people out training. This is a route I've been wanting to do for a while, so I'm pleased I finally got to it, and my legs held out. The goal today was to keep my heart rate firmly in zone 2, and try to keep my feet light and smooth. Mostly it worked out. I was trying to keep my elbows and knees tucked in, and thinking about body position.

My right leg felt fine, though my left knee felt weak. No pain, no cramping, just weak and a bit wonky. It's like it was really stiff and didn't want to move quickly. There was no incentive here to push it hard. I had hoped that it would warm up as I continued, but it never really changed.

The ride was great! I finally got it through my head that these were training rides, and I didn't need to kill myself trying to make time. I stopped and stretched out my legs several times. It's a beautiful ride, and is where I'm thinking of taking Susi in a few weeks. I stopped at the Millarville General Store for more water and a banana.

Looking back on it, I can see that toward the end I was doing more coasting and less riding. After the first hour the average cadance was 79, and that gradually dropped. Of course, the road was getting hillier, and I was trying really hard to keep my heart rate down and my pedaling smooth. Of course, I felt like I had a headwind for most of the ride, but in fact the wind was pretty light so I don't think that was much of a factor. What was odd is that my average speed kept going up little by little.

I tried to run off the bike, honest. My left leg said a bunch of things not suitable to repeat in a family rated blog, and I stopped right away. No actual pain, in the shooting hurts a lot right now sense, but it was like a really strong ache and a really really strong message from the left leg that it wasn't ready for this. So I walked for about 10 minutes and stretched it some more. I'll be calling my massage therapist and let her have another go at it.

Linda was looking me over as I was getting into the shower. Ever since the ride with Susi, she's always been suspicious that I'll come home missing bits. Today she was looking for sunburn, didn't find any, and her only comment was, "You have waffle butt". I guess spending so long in the saddle I picked up the waffle pattern of the shorts padding.

114 K Trip distance
4:57:40 Bike time, 5:11:40 stopwatch time
23 Kph average speed
73 average cadance
77.5 max speed
122 average heart rate
149 peak heart rate
64 minimum
4638 calories.