Thursday, March 18 rides

[Mr. Bloom]

It was an awesome 20 with the club OWLS group - Older Wiser Less Speedy. I'm one of a smaller group of FOWLS - faster, older, wiser less speedy.

My friends Patrick (a marshal arts expert) and Greg (a National Champion Power Lifter) peeled off and had a screamin' spring time ride. I'm still trying to figure out how this chubby guy gets in that threesome...

[lo123]

I finally got my cycling mojo back this week. 3 rides in 3 days (plus a climbing ride on Saturday and a TT on Sunday). Yesterday's being the most fun.

I've been testing out my new toy (Garmin 310XT) and working really hard to control my heart rate

27ish miles with about 2000 feet of climbing in Mountain Brook, a really pretty nice part of town.
Averaged about 15.7 mph. Conquered a hill that usually kicks my butt.

Good ride.

[nscrbug]

I got in 38 miles with my hubby. A bit chilly (we hit the road at 8:30am), but it warmed up nicely. I am always amazed at how tough it is getting back on the bike, after a winter of doing only spin classes and gym workouts (TONS of cardio!). While it DOES feel great to be riding outside again...I'm a little disappointed in how much cycling fitness I have lost over the last few months. It took us nearly 3 hours (with 1 quick rest stop and fighting stop-n-go traffic the entire ride) to ride those 38 miles...which seems like a really long time for such a short distance, to me. It's hard to believe that I was doing 75-100 mile rides just last summer...when right now, 40 miles seems to be quite a struggle. It makes me doubt that I'll ever get back up to riding 75 miles again. Anyone else go through this same thing at the beginning of each riding season???

Linda