I’ve been absent here for a week or so while I launch an affiliate website but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped riding. On the contrary, I rode pretty hard last week and had a good ride last night.

After some of my recent problems riding down at White Rock Lake (rude cyclists and races) I’ve done some riding around the loop we use for our Monday evening training rides. It is kinda boring but there’s no traffic and the only real hazard is gettingtaken out by an airplane. The picture below is of some of the flowers on the loop. It’s actually quite pretty and is like that for the entire .8 mile loop.

I decided last week that I needed to step up my efforts in my rides because I felt like I was becoming accustomed to what I was doing. The first big change I made was to start riding on the big ring. I’m not exactly sure why I haven’t done this before now. I think I was holding back because of the hills (that I’m not used to). After the Monday evening training ride last week where we actually did some big ring work I felt more comfortable turning it.

Wednesday last week instead of doing my normal hill repeat day I decided to head to the loop and see how hard I could push myself. I did a warm-up of five miles that was probably in the 14 mph range followed by a hard 15 miles where at times I was averaging well over 20 mph a lap. In the end I rode the 20 miles at a 16.2 mph average which is huge for me.

Because the holiday weekend was over I decided to head down to White Rock Lake to get a ride in. I, again, wanted to push myself hard to see what I could do around the lake since I was riding a bigger gear now. The wind was supposed to be around 10 mph out of the SSE with gusts to 15 mph but an approaching thunderstorm had the gusts probably close to 20 mph and a steady wind of 15 mph. That’s all headwind on one side of the lake depending on the direction you ride. I rode into the headwind for the first half and pushed myself pretty hard all the way around staying in my 52T ring the whole way. All told I rode about 15 miles with a 15.2 mph average. I believe my previous best average around the lake is in the neighborhood of 14.5. I wanted to do another loop but the approaching thunderstorm didn’t look pretty.

I have to say the biggest change I’ve seen is my riding on the hills. I am now able to ride up them easier and more aggressive (I actually try to think of attacking them before I get to them). In fact, I rode all the hills last night in the big gear which really surprised me. I think I can contribute this to a couple of factors:

1. I’m getting used to the hills.
2. My fitness may be starting to improve.

I expected #1 to eventually happen but I think my biggest surprise is #2. Looking at the speed I was able to carry on the two rides I talked about above, along with the improved hill riding, I think my fitness maybe starting to turn around and be on an upward trend.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen though is actually on my belt. I have been doing more riding the past 1.5 months (probably averaging about 70 miles a week) and have really tried to control my diet. There are days that my diet lapses but for the most part I’ve been very strict with it. I just need to tighten the belt (pardon the pun) and stick with the diet better.

Like I said, the biggest change I’ve seen is on my belt. I’ve already had to tighten it two holes and only have one left to go on this belt. When I moved out here from Florida I intentionally brought two smaller belts I’ve had for a while with every intention of being able to use them. I might be able to reach that goal in the next couple of months.

Well, it’s a Monday. The alarm was blaring at 5:00 AM and I didn’t want to get up. I laid there for about five minutes and force myself to crawl out of bed. Half-asleep I managed to get ready and roll out the garage for my morning bicycle ride.

I could tell right away that it was going to be a long ride because of the way my legs felt. I was right too. For some reason my legs felt really tight. Especially in the hamstrings. I hoped it would work its way out but it never did.

The weather was another big factor in the ride too. It seemed to be out of the Northeast and the one or two flags I saw said it was pretty stiff. Because of the route I take in the mornings I felt it most of the ride except two legs near the end of the ride. I’m glad I didn’t have to face it in the homestretch or it would have been ugly when combined with how my legs felt.

I did get my 13 miles in but in only 56 minutes. Not as slow as I thought it would be but about 5 minutes slower than normal.

One bright spot of the ride was a family of raccoons I saw just past half-way. I’m riding through an area that is a little populated but there are some areas of trees where they haven’t been cleared for either apartments or homes. I’ve ridden through this area a lot and not seen any creatures of the night until this morning. I’m making a long sweeping left hand turn and I see a momma raccoon leading two kids across the street. The kids have got their noses down following moms lead straight across. They pass about 20 feet in front of me and head for the bushes/woods on my right. As they get on the curb I saw, “Good morning.” All three turn around, give me a look, and then head into the bushes. Very cool. I say very cool. They were probably just returning from a nightly raid of wreaking havoc on the trashcans at the apartment complex across the street. Ha, Ha!

Bike to Live.

I got to bed very, very late last night mainly due to reading a book but I wanted to ride today. I wasn’t sure how far I would ride but I had to get out. I had only ridden on Wednesday this week so I knew I needed another bike ride. I slept in until 8:00 AM to get a little sleep and then rolled out. It was overcast outside but nice.

I rolled out of the driveway not know how I was going to ride. It took a couple of minutes to get across the big intersection coming out of my neighborhood but once I did I was able to settle in pretty good. After a few minutes of riding I checked my speed and I was cruising along at 14+ mph. It didn’t even feel like it. I checked my gearing and I was pushing a bigger gear than I normally do and I was doing so almost effortlessly. It felt good. I’ve noticed over the last couple of rides that I’ve been able to push bigger gears easier.

I had good intentions for a longer ride today but my good intentions quickly changed to just making it through a normal weekday ride. Starting out it was overcast and looked like it might rain. The wind seemed to be blowing a little but nothing too bad. With a high of 94 predicted for today it was also starting to warm up. I met my brother-in-law over at his neighborhood and we started out.

The first leg was ok with us moving pretty good. Traffic was a little heavy but not too bad. We actually saw a couple of bikers headed the other way. As we made our first turn we were hit square in the face by a stiff wind. The wind started to pickup and we were struggling to maintain any kind of speed. The clouds to the west were starting to look a little more threatening. At this point we decided cut the ride short and head back after just doing the normal weekday ride route. So, that’s what we did.

Am I disappointed? Sure. I wanted a longer ride today. I had planned on riding over to the University of North Florida, making the loop around the college, and then heading back home. Should have been in the neighborhood of 20-25 miles. To make matters worse we were passed by a guy on a bike easily 25 years my elder. He was riding a real road bike and we weren’t pushing it at all so I don’t feel too bad about it. Maybe it made the other guy feel good to pass us young whipper snappers. If so, it was worth it.

Here are today’s numbers: 11.54 miles, 53:59, 16.3 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg

I got to bed at a decent time last night and felt pretty good this morning as I set off from the house on my morning ride. The weather was great with it clear and warm. Definetly short-sleeve weather.

I get to the first point where I have to cross a busy road and surprisingly had to wait a couple of minutes for the traffic to die down. It’s usually not this busy at 5:15 AM but for some reason there was traffic this morning. I guess it was everybody going in early on a Friday so they could leave early.

As I get started on the first long straightaway I’m feeling great. The legs feel a little heavy but not bad. I cross under a street lamp and catch a glimpse of my speed – 16 mph. Wow, I’m cookin’! I keep going and the speed continues to stay up there.

At about the half-way point I make a turn to left and start heading almost due west. That’s when it hits me. The wind. It wasn’t strong but it was heavy enough to affect my speed for sure. Now I know why I was doing so good earlier. I hadn’t noticed the wind at the house (must have been sleep walking still) but I apparently had a tailwind for the first leg of my ride. That explains the increased speed.

At my turnaround point I’m expecting the wind to move to my rear again, but no, the wind is in my face again. I was thinking, “what in the world is going on?” I turn South preparing to enter No Man’s Land and the wind dies down a little. Maybe I can power through No Man’s Land again. I start hard but about half-way the wind is picking back up and I’m fighting it big time. I catch a glimpse of my speed and it’s dropped down to 13.1 mph. My speed will bottom out somewhere around 10 mph before I can get through No Man’s Land and start the run back home.

The long straightaway back home heads due West so I know I’ll have to deal with the wind gain. I shift to the big ring and try to power through it. It was little to no use. I was tiring quickly and had to move to the middle ring and take it easy for the rest of the way home.

The wind must have been out of the Southwest and at times it was pretty stiff. Upon arriving at home I was dreading looking at my numbers. Turns out they were almost exactly the same as Ride 10 which is good for me. The speed I was able to run in the first half of my ride must have been enough to make up for the slow speed on the second half due to the wind. I’ll take it.

Here are today’s numbers: 11.5 miles, 50:31, 17.5 mph max, and 13.6 mph average