Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Excitement and realizations.

The excitement part is fairly understandable:  a scenic, classic-style cycling race in the Battenkill river valley of New York.  A side-trip to see Jill's little sis in NYC.  A road trip with my wife!

The realizations come in small (or large) doses of experiences not usually encountered in daily life:  wind whipping past your ears for 90 minutes without a pause; a dog darting out from a hedgerow and aiming for your front wheel; a feeling from your legs signaling that they may simply rebel, detatch, and leave you stranded with the aforementioned dog.

Here are the stats from today:

Time:  1:47.28
Dist:    35.00mi
Avg:    19.3mph

I am still not at goal for mph, but I am already feeling that this will come.  Riding solo today was a very good thing for several reasons, but the main benefits center on concentration and power.  With no one to ride behind and my speedometer staring me in the face, I had nowhere to hide.  This is critical as part of a training regimen.  How could one ever expect to ride away from a small group of competitors if your only practice is 'sitting in' and talking away...

Next up....Polar Bear Metric Century on Friday?  We'll see.

3 comments:

The Clawhammer Cyclist said...

Erich, nice work! I'm taking my newbie friend Chris for a ride tomorrow afternoon. Nice and easy, stretch out the legs for the metric friday. Interested?

bicycle spaniard said...

Way to go, Erich. You're like some tireless, cycling ubermensch! Are you definitely in for the Polar Bear? I'm in for the short ride, maybe I'll see you there!

Erich said...

Northstar...coach says tomorrow is a rest day. Plus, I need to catch up on a few household chores before the weekend. Have a good time!

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