Me and Estela were outside for the first real ride of the season. I'm not counting the short ride to a flat tire a couple weeks ago. It's still not exactly warm here, maybe 10 C (50F) while I was riding, but I didn't care. I had to get out. I know lots of you from around here have been out already, but I'm a weenie when it comes to bike weather. I'll happily run outside in minus WTF weather, but this is about as cold as I like to do for rides. The rest of the week is supposed to be nice.
Today was just around the neighbourhood polishing up the rusty bike handling skills. The plan called for some hills repeats And what do you know, almost exactly a year ago the plan called for some hills so I went back to the same one. Now this isn't much of a hill, really. Not anymore. It's the road from the bottom of 24th st down into Bebo Grove in Fish Creek.
Last year going hard it took 2 minutes to go up, and easy took 3. The hill is about .5 K long. I'm not sure I was starting in exactly the same spot but it was within a few metres anyways. Now the easy ones were about 2:30 to 2:35, and the hards were 1:33 to 1:40. Last year I was nearly ready to spew after some of the hards and my heart rate was sky high. This year I didn't go full out to be mindful of my calves; they're still a bit tender. I'll call that progress. Soon I'll find out how Road to Nepal feels.
As a side note, I run up this hill a lot. It used to be a lot longer and steeper, I'm sure.
Rode around the neighbourhood some more to cool down and spin the legs. Total ride 1.25 hrs. I find it's much harder to spin fast outside. I am super pleased with this ride since I felt fairly strong and comfortable on the bike. None of the knee or calf twinges I've been having.
Then a half hour of core and stretching. Actual core was cut a bit short because I got some mild hamstring cramps doing the lunges.
Maybe the earth is moving and the hills we thought were tough a year ago aren't so tough this year.
ReplyDeleteI have not had my tri bike out yet either. Really happy this was STILL not the year to sign up for Ironman...I could not ride all those hours in this crazy weather!!
Woo hoo, way to go, Lance!! I knew the legs would come back, they'd just gone off for a bit of a holiday :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you got your first real ride outside! And that the legs came around for you. Good stuff! And great job on diminishing the size of those hills too.
ReplyDeleteI love that part - defining the new 'easy' vs. 'hard.' See quantifiable results is so satisfying to me...but I'm a huge dork for sure.
ReplyDeleteYour knee and calves were complaining about being indoors for so long -- sounds like they wanted to get outside already! :) :)
ReplyDeleteSo..am I going to see your cute mug on Saturday or what? I will bring you one of my "Balls of Fury" and a V8...am I not tempting you? Hee-hee!!!
i'm so excited to read about your run yesterday and bike today! it's fantastic that you are seeing improvement even after all this time you have felt sluggish. go keith go!!! keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are realizing all the hard work you put in over the past year!
ReplyDeleteGlad you finnally got out. I agree 50 is chilly, esp. on the bike.
ReplyDeleteI love when you get to redefine what's easy. That's what it's all about!
p.s. ok, maybe not lovers...anymore :)