Last Week and Why Am I Doing This?

Eight days ago, on Sunday, I rode a century.  Monday was a mellow half an hour of recovery.  Tuesday, I did a hard class.  Since then, it’s been daily half an hour on a trainer just to keep the streak alive.  OK, I was traveling and didn’t have access to acceptable riding weather (high of 117), cycling shoes, or time.  But on Wednesday I was on the trainer for half an hour after work.  On Thursday, I was on the trainer for half an hour before my early afternoon flight.  On Friday, I rode half an hour in 90+ degree weather around my father-in-law’s subdivision in Palm Springs.  On Saturday, I rode an exercise bike for half an hour at a gym in Temecula.  Finally, yesterday, I rode the trainer for half an hour at home in front of the TV with the Vuelta playing.  After I got off the bike, I began to wonder about the purpose of this.  Yes, I resolved to ride every day of my 50^th year and, yes, this riding – done smartly – is keeping me strong and healthy, but this half an hour at a time indoors business is boring, marginally productive, and is done just to maintain the streak.  I wasn’t having fun on these rides, although riding around a Palm Springs golf course community in tennis shoes at a slow speed was strangely peaceful.  I recognize that the trip caused a significant portion of the boredom, but trip or no trip, it was boring.  I say all this as a preamble to a resolution to keep cycling during this streak fun as much as I can.

And today, day 60, was a 60-minute VeloSF suffer-fest, which was fun in its own, perverse, way.  Fun, if emerging from an interval on the verge of throwing up is your idea of fun; it must be mine.  Strange, perhaps because today’s intervals were high-cadence affairs, these intervals felt OK during, not so OK after.

Oh, and one more thing: I gained a bunch of weight during my sedentary recuperation and from driving to work, rather than walking to and from public transit.  Two weeks ago, I went off bread and sugar and began eating smaller portions.  I am happy to report a loss of five pounds.  Another eight and I’ll be content.

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Updates, Updates

Lots and lots of catching up to do.  So much has happened and I’ve had so little to say about it until now.  On Thursday, August 18, I did a hard class.  Next day, I just spun my legs for half an hour.  Saturday, I barely managed to keep the streak going with 30 minutes of very slow leg turning on the trainer from 9:00 to 9:30 p.m., while reading Born to Run, a book about ultramarathon runners in the US and long distance running Tamahumara Indians in Mexico.   So, yes, hardly any effort those two days.

And that’s because I was tapering for Napa Century, er , pretentiously named Tour of Napa Valley.  The Napa Valley part of the ride was the part I don’t like actually – riding up and down Silverado Trail.  Yes, it’s fairly scenic, ringed with the hills separating Napa County from Sonoma County to the west and Lake County to the east, and vineyards and faux chateaux everywhere, but it has too much traffic, many of the drivers wine tasters, which makes me feel unsafe.  Also, I don’t like riding on flat.  Perhaps because I don’t ride on flat much, I ride harder than I want.  The terrain pushes me to go harder than I ride uphill, for example, and when the time comes to climb, I’d left my legs on the flat, and have to back off and recover.

Well, Howie and I rode Napa Century (click the hyperlink to read that account), then I recovered a lot.  Read all about the recovery and what followed in the post above.

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Redemption of Sorts

Today's class was notable for its similarity to a class I did -- tried to do -- about six weeks ago.  After two of four sets of intervals I was done.  Today, remembering that experience, I wondered whether I'd be able to complete the class.  The class consisted of four 12-minute intervals, each consisting of four rollers, ridden in a fixed gear of sorts.  We went at our base speed and cadence on flat for a minute, climbed for a minute at a lower speed and cadence, then descended in a higher speed and cadence for a minute at gradually increasing power/resistance levels.  Four rollers constituted one 12-minute interval.

I was pretty cooked after first two sets of intervals, but I was only cooked medium-rare and was inspired to continue.  After another, I was cooked medium, and after the fourth I was done medium-well.  Glad I didn't have to go into well done.  I must be fitter -- I completed this workout!

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Inside Out

Outside in, to be precise.  Outdoors on Sunday, indoors today.

On Sunday, I rode the Dublin Grade loop clockwise: up Tunnel, down Pinehurst, through Moraga and Lafayette, Walnut Creek, straight all the way down to Dublin, right turn, up and down Dublin Grade, through Castro Valley, all the way up Redwood to Oakland.  Much of this ride is flat.  Moraga to Dublin has no hills to speak of, save for a couple of bumps.  There are four climbs of any significance on the entire route: Tunnel, Dublin Grade, and Redwood twice because it climbs out of Castro Valley golf course, descends and climbs again into Oakland.  I had Floyd for company from home to Danville, then we met Gary, who accompanied me for the rest of the ride, while Floyd turned around.

I felt good almost the whole time.  Riding with Floyd was harder.  I was glad we had a red light at Stone Valley intersection in Alamo, where the light is always red, and I could rest a bit.  My legs were sucking wind a bit until we unclipped.  The 30 seconds of waiting for the light to change before we decided to run the red provided just enough recovery time and I felt comfortable the rest of the way.  I climbed smartly and always tried to ride at conversational pace.  As a result, I had enough in the tank to do the second Redwood climb in the big ring.  Before you heap praise, note that my big ring is a 46 and I was in 21 in the rear, so I wasn't exactly turning a monster gear, but after spending all day of spinning up hills it was nice to do something different, something that made me think that I'm strong even though it hurt more than I'd anticipated or would have liked.

Even with that last bit of masochism, I felt surprisingly good and fresh at the end of the ride.  Not sure how far I rode -- having done the ride without a computer -- but I think it's a 70+ mile loop.  Fresh enough to contemplate Napa Century next Sunday.  I'm pretty sure I can do it comfortable if I ride smart -- a familiar enough refrain...

Today, I did a recovery spin in class for 46:46 to celebrate the 46th consecutive day of riding.  I'm becoming a bit concerned about this habit of riding the same number of minutes as the day of the streak -- in a couple of months these rides will stretch to 1:46 if I continue with this and what of next spring?  I have a few weeks to figure out how to deal with this.

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Twice Outside (43-44)

Yesterday and today, I did quick jaunts up and down the hill.  Yesterday was not so quick, frankly, as it was a recovery day and I let everyone pass me.  I was riding so slowly that Howie was pleasantly surprised, but even so, he ended up half-wheeling me -- I was riding so slowly.  Today, I rode more aggressively, but focused on spinning, preserving my legs for tomorrow's long ride.

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Recovery? My Quads!

As I said yesterday, this is supposed be a recovery week at the club.  If you ask my legs, they'd say, "hardly."  In all fairness, that's due to my brain -- I did three classes hard in four days.  No one else was telling me to ride as hard as I rode.  Instructors' instructions were instructions -- not orders -- and I was free to modify or disregard them.  I chose not to.  Actually, I modified a few times -- in the wrong direction.

OK, it was all my fault, but, as I walked up the stairs to the house, legs weren't working so well.  No ice skating tonight, thank you.  Feel much better after an Epsom Salt bath.  Will try a four-hour ride this weekend.

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Two by Four(ty-one)

To celebrate the 41st consecutive day of riding I did a very easy recovery ride of 41:41.  Watched Alex the instructor and one other rider in the noon class sweat bullets; they looked like they were working really hard -- I wasn't paying attention very well to what they were doing.  During a break in the action, I said to Alex, "man, and this is supposed to be a recovery week!"  He nodded and more sweat fell off his nose.  I'm looking forward to that workout tomorrow.  Or maybe not so much...

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